Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys has been laying low in Dharamsala in India, recovering from cancer and hanging out with Buddhist nuns and none other than The Dalai Lama.

He has a habit of letting us get up close and intimate in his world, even penning notes from his hospital bed. Here’s the latest from a very zen Adam:

hey all,
so i just got back from dharamsala, india. went over there to see some tibetan doctors, but as it worked out, the Dalai Lama was giving a 3 day teaching, so i was able to attend that as well.

i’m feeling healthy, strong and hopeful that i’ve beaten this thing, but of course time will tell.  i’m taking tibetan medicine and at the recommendation of the tibetan doctors i’ve been eating a vegan/organic diet, which surprisingly enough was harder to do in india than it is now that i’m back home. here i can just shop for the right food and cook… a lot easier than depending on restaurants.

when i was in india i visited an ani gompa (a nunnery) called jamyang choling. they did a puja (religious ceremony) for me to help me get well. one nun said to me “we do prayers and then you are better.” so i’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

i will put a link to their web site (below) but it doesn’t do justice to how amazing it is to actually go there and hang out with them. i sponsor a few nuns at jamyang choling. there are about 125 nuns there now and more keep joining. when i first met them i think there were only 13 and they were living in some abandoned cow sheds. then they bought some land with some donations, and with more donations they started building rooms for housing, classrooms, a prayer hall, 2 stoopas….. they now live on a beautiful complex in this incredibly lush, peaceful patch of land in lower dharamsala. cows walking around, birds singing, they are growing mangoes and bananas, and they have a whole garden where they grow herbs and vegetables.

i asked how many nuns still need sponsorship. they said 50. it’s about $350 a year to sponsor a nun if you are interested.

www.jamchoebuddhistdialectics.org

we have not set a new release date for the record yet, but i’m hoping it’ll be in the first half of next year. looking forward to that, but in the meantime, i’m just enjoying a little downtime in massachusetts, taking walks in the woods and hanging out with the family…. still doing a little work related to oscilloscope, watching screeners and attending some screenings, but for the most part, just laying low.

if you are interested i’ll send out some little updates every now and then on the oscilloscope twitter account.

thanks again for all of the well wishes and prayers, and the letters were great too, brought a smile to my face reading them.

talk to you soon,
yauch

Feel like some cooking tips from Beasties’ MC Mike D? His lady Tamra has put together this nice little Youtube Channel.

Just watch him prepare that school lunch for his kids – Go gettem Dad!

This came through from Adam to their fanbase… god love the Beastie Boys.

hey all,

hope you are doing well.

so i’m about a week and a half out of surgery now and rapidly recovering from it. i haven’t taken any of the pain meds, which supposedly speeds along the healing process, or should i say, taking them slows it down. anyway, i spent 1 night at the hospital after the surgery. the hospital was too crazy to get any rest so i headed home to relax, have home cooked food and hang out with the family.

i’m pretty well detoxed from the anesthesia that they pumped me up with to keep me under for all that time. that took several days to get out of my system. my neck and jaw are still pretty stiff from the surgery, but it gets better everyday. had the stitches out this past monday… so things are moving along.

but no sooner am i on the mend from this first torture than are they lining up the next one. the next line of treatment will be radiation. that involves blasting you with some kind of beam for a few minutes a day, 5 days a week, for about 7 weeks. that will start in a few weeks…

saw the jay-z cover of no sleep, and the coldplay one of fight for your right from APW on youtube. good shit. and i heard karen o wore a “get well MCA” armband, and that q-tip gave a shout out too….. very kind of them.

just wanted to thank them and everyone else who sent positive thoughts my way. i do think that all of the well wishes have contributed to the fact that my treatment and recovery are going well.

much love back at all of you!

adam

From the All Points West Festival, which the Beastie Boys had to cancel due to Adam’s recent news about his having to take time out to get treatment for cancer, a number of artists did a tribute to them including:

Jay-Z kicked off his set with a version of No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn:

Coldplay covered Fight For Your Right To Party:

Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs had the words “get well mca” scrawled on her arms and gave a shout out for a quick recovery:

We’re with you guys!

Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys has announced, by video on the band’s site, that he will be receiving treatment for cancer and that as a result they will have to cancel some shows and push back the release of a new album Hot Sauce Committee Part 1.

Joined by band mate Adam Horovitz, Yauch said “This is something that’s very treatable and in most cases it’s, um, they’re able to completely get rid of it”

We are thinking of him and wish him a speedy recovery.

The coolest dudes in Hip Hop have got together with NAS and here is a listen to their track Too Many Rappers off their album Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 coming out September 18

Ch-ch-check it out

If you got the latest issue of Vice mag you may have seen a small lift out mag called “We Can Meet Heroes”. If you skipped through to the “The Time I Met..” page you’ll see the story of when I met my heroes in the Beastie Boys. So you can understand why I get all warm in the undies when I get mail like this in my in box.

BEASTIE BOYS – HOT SAUCE COMMITTEE PART 1 OUT SEPTEMBER 18 (AUS)

The title, release date and complete track listing for Beastie Boys’ eighth studio album have been confirmed: Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 will be released September 18 in multiple configurations including a 5.1 surround mix and will consist of the following compositions:

1. Tadlock’s Glasses
2. B-Boys In The Cut
3. Make Some Noise
4. Nonstop Disco Powerpack
5. OK
6. Too Many Rappers (featuring NAS)
7. Say It
8. The Bill Harper Collection
9. Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win (featuring Santigold)
10. Long Burn The Fire
11. Bundt Cake
12. Funky Donkey
13. Lee Majors Come Again
14. Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament
15. Pop Your Balloon
16. Crazy Ass Shit
17. Here’s A Little Something For Ya

Beastie Boys recently began a summer festival mission with a set at the Bonnaroo festival that blew the crowd of 70,000-plus out of their Birkenstocks and caused devil sticks to spontaneously combust. The performance featured an appearance by Nas who joined the Boys for the live debut of the new record’s “Too Many Rappers,” as well as a rare appearance from Country Mike for an acoustic rendition of “Heart Attack Man.”

Finally, the last installment of the deluxe, remastered, expanded and altogether awesome Beastie Boys catalogue reissues will be dropping in advance of the new record: Hello Nasty will be given the 2-CD/vinyl box set/multi-format treatment beginning with an August 17 pre-order/digital release and pre-orders for the expanded, remastered multi-format Ill Communication will begin July 6.

As announced by Mike D, Adrock and MCA themselves on NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, was the title for the upcoming new Beastie Boys album HOT SAUCE COMMITTEE. The band’s eight album of all new original material will drrrrop this spring, with an exact date to be confirmed shortly.

The B Boys have also been going all Willy Wonka on our booty too with a golden ticket style roll out of random seven inch vinyl copies of new track “Lee Majors Come Again” and the acapella version of “B Boys In The Cut” as part of the recently released deluxe vinyl edition of Check Your Head. One copy of the seven inch was found selling on eBay for $105 – that’s $25 above the list price of the original Check Your Head package in which it was included in!

The new track “Lee Majors Come Again” has just made it’s way to YouTube. So much Beasties action that I need to take a moment!

…and check them ripping out “So What’cha Want’ featuring The Roots on Jimmy Fallon earlier this week.