The last time Weekly World Central talked to Ricky Gelb, it wasn't about being Tucson musician Howe Gelb's brother, but about his own music career and starting a business.

Gelb was the frontman for the band Low Max from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and during his career, he's recorded with the late Vic Chesnutt; Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde; and Isobel Campbell of Belle and Sebastian.

In our last interview, Gelb touched briefly on a time in his life when he turned to spirituality and meditation to help him break from addiction. Today, Gelb is refocusing on what he learned studying transcendental meditation and he wants to work with others as a meditation guide, teaching silent mantra meditation "to help people deeply relax" and ease anxiety. Gelb told The Range this form of meditation is perfect for people in recovery and others who need help "developing self worth."

Gelb asked the Range if we could share some of his meditations, beginning with this one for the Easter holiday.

Want more? visit meditaining.com or e-mail Ricky at [email protected]. He's still in the airport transportation business, and you can always listen to his music at www.reverbnation.com/rickygelb. At the end of this post we put up a video of a recording of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah Gelb did on KXCI with Tucson musician Leila Lopez.

Jesus, Buddha & Self Realization:

Disciples asked Jesus: "Tell us what our end will be" Jesus said: If you havent found the beginning why ask about the end? For where the beginning is, the end is also. Blessed are those who stand at the beginning, for they will know the end, and they will not taste death.

The sages, yogis & spiritually awakened have been telling us this in their own words for thousands of years. Go within and find the light (meaning awareness). Find the still bliss and quell the mind and in transcendence you will come to know unknowing.

An anonymous christian monk in the 1400's wrote about the cloud of unknowing and contemplative prayer came from this. Where you would have a cloud of forgetfulness below you and a cloud of unknowing above to unite with the creator. Focus on the I AM God within the soul, the fragment of God within and the essence of life.

As the Buddha said, do not believe what anyone tells you, even me, go within and find the truth, it will get revealed, more will be revealed in the stillness.

Want to know who's playing the twenty five stages of Spring Club Crawl 2012?

The details are below the cut.

Wristbands for the Tucson Weekly's Fall Club Crawl are now available at both Tucson Zia Records locations. Wristbands are $8 in advance and $10 at the gate. VIP passes are also available.

Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi, who helped lead the way for the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989 and lived in Tucson in exile, died here yesterday. The New York Times reports:

Fang Lizhi, whose advocacy of economic and democratic freedoms shaped China’s brief era of student dissent that ended with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and his exile, died on Friday in Tucson, Ariz., his son, Fang Ke, said Saturday.

Mr. Fang was 76. The cause of death was not known, his son said in a telephone interview.

A brilliant scientist — and in his early years a loyal member of the Communist Party — Mr. Fang had become China’s best-known dissident by the 1980s, his views shaped by persecution in China and exposure to Western political concepts abroad.

In early 1989, he published an open letter to China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, calling for the release of political prisoners. The letter helped galvanize a pro-democracy student movement that spring, climaxing on June 4, when Chinese troops killed hundreds of student protesters among the masses occupying Tiananmen Square.

Fearing arrest, Mr. Fang sought refuge with his family at the United States Embassy in Beijing. President George Bush’s decision to grant him protection there provoked a yearlong diplomatic standoff with the Chinese that ended, after secret negotiations, with a decision by Chinese leaders in June 1990 to allow the family to leave China, ostensibly for medical treatment.

Mr. Fang later became a professor of physics at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he taught and continued to speak out on human rights until his death.

I interviewed Fang way back in 1995:

Fang Lizhi knows he may never see his homeland again.

Were he ever to return to China, Fang would find himself "detained indefinitely" by the current communist government.

Pima County Republican Party chairwoman Carolyn Cox and Pima County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rogers join Arizona Public Media reporter Andrea Kelly and host Jim Nintzel to discuss the week in review, including the fundraising in the special election to complete Gabrielle Giffords' congressional term, the effort to oust Democratic state lawmaker Daniel Patterson following a damning ethics report, the Daily Show's report on TUSD's Mexican-American studies program, Councilman Steve Kozachik's effort to bust open the RTA piggybank to fix Tucson streets and more!

If you have 2 minutes and 42 seconds to kill today (and who are we kidding, you do), you really should watch this clip, apparently created by Jim Henson, intended to convince the executives at CBS that they should air The Muppet Show. Enthusiastic consumer patriotism...there's just not enough of that going around these days.

[Laughing Squid]

I could watch classic country clips all day long, so basically this post was an excuse to celebrate the songs of Merle Haggard for a moment and to drift through a series of a YouTube links on company time. Totally worth it.

"Mama Tried":

Two additional tracks by the legendary country and western singer below the cut.

Tucson music from Amy Rude and Loveland, plus you can get some instruction on how to make hobo pies (which I did know previously know was a thing people made). What more could you ask for?

• Jim Nintzel

The Tucson Padres opened the season by getting shut out by the Fresno Grizzlies. A tough first game! The ball clubs meet again tonight at Kino Stadium at 7:05 p.m.

Details from the Padres' Tim Hagerty:

The Tucson Padres were shut out on Opening Night, falling to the Fresno Grizzlies, 3-0 Thursday at Kino Stadium. The Padres had multiple scoring opportunities, with at least one baserunner in seven of their nine innings. The T-Pads left 11 runners on base.

Fresno's Charlie Culberson hit an RBI single in the first inning and the 1-0 lead stayed until the sixth, when Joaquin Arias hit a two-out, two-run single for Fresno. The Padres threatened in the ninth inning, bringing the tying run to the plate, but first basemen Todd Linden made a lunging play on Blake Tekotte's ground ball to end the game.

Tucson starter Joe Wieland struck out seven Grizzlies in his Triple-A debut and allowed three runs on eight hits. The Padres bullpen was strong Thursday, with Cory Burns, Alex Hinshaw and Colt Hynes pitching scoreless outings.

Next Game: Friday, 7:05 pm at Kino Stadium - Fresno LHP Brian Burres (0-0, -.—) vs. Tucson RHP Casey Kelly (0-0, -.—). The first 1,000 kids, ages 16 and under, receive a free Everth Cabrera or Kyle Blanks bobblehead. The game broadcast is live on Tejano 1600 AM at 6:55 pm.

Usually, I find robots deeply frightening, assuming they exist to first comfort us with their helpfulness, then rise as one to destroy or enslave the human race, but if this sushi making robot is the best our future electronic overlords have to offer, I think we might have another decade left of societal dominance. After all, someone has to load the seaweed and fish for the robot to do the rest of the work. How do you expect to lull us in to submission like that, robots?

In other sushi news, Jiro Dreams of Sushi opens at the Loft today and it's 81 minutes of magic. You should check it out if you enjoy craftsmanship, food, or wonderful things.

On Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable tonight: Election Day is near for the Republicans in the race to complete Gabrielle Giffords' congressional term and a Tucson City Councilman has a new idea about where to find money to fix Tucson's streets. Plus, the latest from the Arizona Legislature, including the effort to oust a Tucson lawmaker following the release of a shocking ethics report. Pima County Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers and Pima County Republican Party chairwoman Carolyn Cox join Arizona Public Media political correspondent Andrea Kelly and host Jim Nintzel for a look back on the week in Arizona politics. Tune in at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6.