Actually, that's a bit complicated. The "909" part is the obvious one; back when I started using this name, I still had a Roland TR-909. I got rid of it a few years ago, though...it was locking me into working paradigms that I thought were too restrictive, and given that I could build much of what it could do sonically into Ableton, I let it go. Used that to pay for a number of things...
But the "Lugia" part, that's where things get complicated. Back around the time that Pokemon Red/Blue came out in the USA, I was in a rather nasty compositional slump. But I found that playing the GB game was actually rather meditative and calming, and the TCG really forced me to focus on strategic thought processes. As a result, this pulled me back out of the dry spell over time, and I got to know some rather interesting people back then. One of them was the organist at the San Diego Buddhist Temple, who was also a national-level judge for the TCG at the time, and she and I had some very in-depth conversations online about the cultural aspects in the game.
So, now we fast-forward to 2000. The second movie made a significant impression on me, and I had a definite feeling that the 4Kids translation was botching parts of the underlying message in it. So I managed to track down a literal translation of the Japanese script, and sure enough...yep, they'd "edited" certain things that might torque off conservative American audiences, particularly having to do with some of the significant traces back to Buddhism and Shinto. So, one evening Doreen and I were discussing the edited-out bits, and we got into a lengthy (as in, ultimately lasting several MONTHS) discussion about the nature of Shinto kami and the concept in Buddhism of the "Bodhisattva Path".
Now, at that time, I was still in something of a "spiritually unanchored" state, and had been for about 20+ years. And while I had encountered a few different strains of Buddhism before, nothing had "clicked". But now, something WAS clicking, in particular about the practices in Jodo Shinshu. The concept of "life as practice" wasn't familiar...but it made perfect sense. So, after a VERY intense experience of composition study at the Stockhausen Courses for New Music in 2001, I returned to the USA...and a month later, all hell broke loose on September 11th. The horror of that wasn't comprehensible...it was simply too overloading, and I began to wonder if something in me was lacking. Doreen and I continued our discussions...until one night...
...there was this dream. And in it, that Pokemon appeared, said to me "Sing the song. The song has to be sung." And then it chanted the Heart Sutra, followed by a bright flash of light, at which point I woke up and really wondered "what in the FUCK was THAT?" But whatever it WAS...it led me to head up to Chicago one afternoon in the Summer of 2002, where I had a long chat with Rev. Koshin Ogui at the Midwest Buddhist Temple. And he talked about the notion that, in everyones' lives, there might be a moment where a "teacher" appears in your life...and this could be literally anything. But the key is that that teacher points the way to the Dharma, ergo it actually doesn't matter what FORM it has, as for all intents and purposes, that teacher is always the same teacher in the form of the Non-arising Dharma, despite what it might look like to ones' perceptions.
The drive back to downstate was perhaps one of the most clearheaded moments in my life. A few months later, I took refuge in the Triple Jewel. And that remains.
So the "Lugia" part is an acknowledgement, in gratitude, for having been shown a way to...well...that's not easy to explain. One doesn't exactly "practice" in Jodo Shinshu, but everything BECOMES "practice" in the end. So it's not exactly possible to disentangle the Dharma from the usual eat/sleep/shit/fuck that life consists of. In actuality, one tries to apply the teachings to pretty much anything. This doesn't always work, though...since, like anyone else, I'm NOT the Buddha, but just some slob with a lot of musical experience and not exactly the greatest temper that's gotten a bit more than the avg. clue from the Buddha's teachings. So, no, I don't always do the right sort of things in my existence...but at least I have a few things around that remind me to TRY. And Pokemon #249 is part of those reminders.
Besides, Lugia looks cool...and yes, I DO still play! #nationaldex4life
