Another tea party

I had another tea party on Saturday. The weather was beautiful and it made for some good times.

Here are some pictures of the event. At first I read aloud for a little while waiting for the tea to warm up and then we played scrabble and ate some cookies. The scrabble game started out in a mature manner but at one point we threw out the rules and threw all the tiles together trying as a team to fit all the tiles on the board. I laughed until my stomach started hurting.

I am noticing that the people that walk by all seem to smile. If anything I hope that these gatherings will brighten the day of those who saw us. A video of a dance that took place during the tea party. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Pictures from Rozzell's Workshop @ PSU

Also I made a Flickr set for the things that Ben & I learned during Rozzell's OMG DIY FYI workshop at Public Social University:
http://flickr.com/photos/58661292@N00/sets/72157613453303455/

Residency Documentation

Here is some documentation from my visit to my residency today:
http://flickr.com/photos/58661292@N00/sets/72157613452391403/

My Residency is taking place at the bus stop that I use to come to school, it's on 182nd Ave & Powell Blvd in Gresham and is serviced by the 9 Powell bus headed west towards Portland.

Stop Motion Animation!

Good Job Team!

Wood and Water

I've been posting like mad in my UrBlog linked to the headline. Yes, there's meandering. It's the salt water in my blood reminded of the ocean every time the Willamette changes direction with the tides and all the time I spend in Portland's woody spaces I guess. Did you know there's rivers under the streets here? Underground water pulsing with the ocean. It's all coming out like this cause my old word patterns can't hold my new thoughts. Patience and oyster mushrooms, cosmos in motion, finding a safe path through the bardo. See the UrBlog for more.

Bike Farm Basic Maintenance Class

Public Social University - Feb 2

The third installment of Public Social University was launched earlier this week. We had three workshops:

The first was called "Let Yourself Express An Inner Monologue." Cara Deffilipi created a modern dance routine that we learned and embellished a little on. We were dancing to a Tom Waits song. 2 days later and my legs are still sore.







Here's a video of us trying to dance. Looks like we aren't so bad for beginners right? If you can see the video, click here.

For the next session, The Theory of Sandwich Making, Camilleo gave us the 411 on how to craft a sandwhich that does what its supposed to do: stay together, look good, and taste good. Did you know there's a science to this? It's true. From now on, my sandwiches will be twice as good as they were before.

For the third portion, titled OMG DIY FYI, Rozzell Medina asked people to pair up and then to talk about what sorts of things we might want to learn with our partner. We then went outside and learned them, came back to the library and shared with each other. Some people learned some interesting things. For example some learned about this young kid who plays drums on plastic buckets in order to raise money for college. Someone else tried to learn how to do kartwheels. Other people learned about hiccups, what causes them and how to get rid of them. We had a fun time.

time to rock out!

i have started a blog about my residency with the psu geology department. you can see it here.

Anna and Amphone doing handstands

Sorry for the late pictures. I uploaded my camera pics and found these. I think they are funny. If any of you forgot it was when we were all taught how to do headstands but the floor was too hard so we ended up doing handstands.

Anna has the perfect handstand!

FEED! Shwag

Hi all, I made t-shirts and tanktops out of my boyfriends kitchen using only a linocut and oil ink. Let me know if you want a shirt. All the shirts I picked up at the bins and re-rewashed. All is free of course. I would be happy to make any of you one, please let me know your size. I thought panties and boxers were also a cool idea but I didn't think anyone would wear used ones...:)

The logo has FEED on the top with a mirrored version of it. You can choose black ink or magenta and have it placed anywhere on the shirt.

Lets Get Connected

My first project is called Be Connected. The idea stemmed from a circuit board and how all the components are connected together in a group to make something work. The project is very simple. Everyone will be tied together by various lengths of string. The string could be tied to a belt loop or someplace that won't get in the way of your camera trigger finger. I will begin leading the class around the industrial area around Free Geek, then I will pass the reigns to someone else and so on. The idea is to have everyone work as a group while taking pictures (i.e. asking the group to stop at a curb to take pictures of ants or slowing down if you notice someone lagging behind). The creative expressions/perspectives will also change because now you will be confined to a group. Meeting time is mid day on a Tuesday so there should be plenty of activities to photograph.

I know the flier is a little janky...i did it last night in my room while watching Leno.

FEED!

Hello gang, I am doing my residency at Free Geek and going to try and stay under the radar. For all of you unfamiliar with Free Geek they are a not-for-profit organization that rebuilds used technology to provide computers, education, internet access and job skills training to those in need in exchange for community service. If any of you want to check out the facility or the little thrift store the address is 1731 SE 10th Ave. There are great deals for electronics and accesories that will blow you away. I also love their motto, " helping the needy get nerdy". The vibe there is amazing and everyone i've met has been sweet and helpful. The idea to name my residency project Feed! came while I was waiting for the tour. I was thinking about the relationship with feeding one's hunger (either with food or the desire to learn) and electrical feeds. One being a human emotion while the other is artificial. I would like to combine the two within my projects.

My first day at Free Geek was on Saturday (1/30) and I was immediately put on library duty. An awesome lady named Laurel helped me reorganize the misplaced books. Going through all the books gave me a huge respect for computer programmers and how i'm so glad i'm not one! I will be there again tomorrow at noon (2/4) and hope to hang some fliers for my first project...

BLT Exercise

Here's the video of the guy who exercises, pants, and cooks a BLT all at once. A tribute to our sandwich making workshop!

Maferefun Eshu

Here's my peanut version of Papa Legba's veve.
No crows or other birds arrived while I did qigong a good distance away, but after I started hiking back to public transit I heard them having a good time.

Happy surfing during this Mercury storm between eclipses. Yowza. My mind is synthesizing connections between all of the various self programming technologies and ontologies I've studied and practiced over the years. Tendency to meander possible, but alas Legba is a wanderer. The cane shape on the right of the image represents his walking stick. Maybe if I stopped feeding Legba I'd stop wandering so much. But why would I want to do that? It keeps me in shape and gives my mind the space to sort itself out so I don't make stupid decisions simply from a lack of awareness. It's a great stress reducer which again improves my health while not burning fossil fuels. Wandering rocks.

Public Social University Is Back In Full Force

A Long and Meandering Road

The link is to my latest blog post talking about getting together with City Repair Project and manifesting some beautiful visions of a humanity in harmony with its homeworld. It might be long and meandering, but that's the shape of my mind. I meander like a river or the slow dance of plants growing and changing. Oops, have I exceeded my soundbyte time? Clicky the linky if you want to know more.

Bardo Listening Party Correction

Arrrgh. The Soluna program on my iPod got the dates mixed up and put the eclipse picture with the full moon on the 24th. That'll learn me to trust the software without consulting my own knowledge of the sky. The eclipse in Leo is of course 2 weeks after the eclipse in Aquarius which is monday the 9th of february. So I want to have the listening party on the evening of sunday the 8th (still hail Eris! since as all Discordians know: 8 is 2 cubed, another way to write 23). Need to find a place. I can bring speakers. Ideally there would be enough space for dancing as this is Ascension Conspiracy's official emergence from the ambient soup and room to move helps the music serve its healing function.

Bardo

On the way home I caught a glimpse of a bright, gibbous Venus sparkling above the first lunar crescent visible since the solar eclipse that danced across the Indian Ocean 3 days ago . The picture is of Sol a few hours before eclipse on Sunday since I didn't have my camera with me today.

Synchronicities abound between sky and ground...

Then a special Yeticave visit manifested via my friend Nolon (aka Cult of Zir). It turned my solo music project Ascension Conspiracy into a social event by the addition of another set of ears conveniently connected to a fellow audio engineer. We listened to my latest creature of sound Bardo. I had gone as far as I could with it due to the fact that I'm not just the musician(s) but also the recording engineer. I thought it might be done, but my objectivity was long gone a couple of months ago. Even without his intelligent feedback just having someone else's energy field present in the adytum of my artist residency changed my experience of it enough to get some objectivity back. It was decided that the song Ghost Heavens really is complete with the interplay between vocals and drums. Bass and guitar would just clutter it up. That dilemma having been settled it shall now be mastered and set loose upon the world. Bwahahahaha!

Go here:

http://public.me.com/wandering_yeti

username is "Public"
password is eyed!sko


and you will find the entirety of Bardo's predecessor Prima Materia as well as the original version of Ghost Heavens before I rebuilt it with drums and live vocals. In a folder called Next Album Prototypes you'll find unmastered (but quite listenable) versions of most of the tracks from Bardo. You may download freely. If you like what you hear and you can afford it and you want to help Yeticave Records stay alive voluntary donations can be sent to
galileo93 at yahoo doot com via paypal.

Mostly I just want y'all to be able to enjoy my music. It would just end up on torrent sites anyway so this is the way a lot of bands are going. I got the idea from Kirsten Hersch formerly of Throwing Muses originally. Then after doing my own printing and copying for the first release of Ascension Conspiracy, Awake in the Kingdom I realized just how much stuff goes into reproducing CD's and I only made 11 copies! Imagine if it were 1000 or 10000. That's a lot of tree pulp, oil for the plastic and truck fuel for transportation that is saved by sharing music on the internet.

I created Yeticave Records as a download only record company to bring my music habits into harmony with my green heart. I'd rather the trees remain standing, living, and binding greenhouse gasses into their bodies not to mention absorbing heat with their dark leaves and turning warming into the metabolic processes of their lives instead of radiating it back into the atmosphere like pavement or a rooftop with no plants. Is it really that important to have an object to hold in my hands? It's the sounds I'm really into anyway.

So in honor of Luna's eclipse in Leo on 9 feb when tonight's barely visible sliver reaches fullness in red I want to have a listening party for the finished beast. The actual eclipse happens in the early morning just as the moon sets so I want to have the listening party on sunday evening feb 8 (hail Eris!) when Luna is in Leo and still approaching opposition with Sol in Gaia's shadow. Not too late for working types. I should have it mastered and tamed for playback on any and all speaker systems by then. I don't have enough space myself to host such a thing. Any ideas?

My artist residency in Kindergarten

Hi everyone! I am doing my artist residency in my son's kindergarten classroom. So far I am brainstorming some ideas for the old "kitchen" area. It is either going to become a grocery (in which I will make boxes of food with the kid's pictures and names on them, for instance, Silas' Soup or Kira's Cookies, etc) or a post office and I will get to put in a stationary-making station for the kids (using the left overs from my wedding invitations kits) with card stock, hole punchers, and other arty stuff so that the kids can make letters for each other and in mail carrier costume, "deliver" the letters to each other's "mail boxes" (which I also may be making). I am in the process of brainstorming ideas to further implement each kid's unique identity and input to go into the "local kindergarten post office" experience. The teacher has also offered me up to 30-35 minutes at the beginning of class sometime to teach the kids something should the inspiration hit me as I am observing her interactions, curriculum, and subject matter with the kids. I plan on spending my Mondays and Wednesdays before Art and Soc Policy class in his classroom, so that should give me some good time to get inspired with some project ideas. Today was exciting in that the kids were like a little ocean of movement during story and discussion time, all fidgiting at different moments but like a chain-reaction, one starts moving and then another and then another . . . . Also, kindergartners are soooooo expressive. If the teacher tells them anything, they respond with a hefty "Oooooooooooh" and/or "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh," whether reacting to a surprise or something familiar, they really do not censor or ration their opportunities to "release" these sounds. It is funny how, as we get older, or whatever it is that changes, "Ooooooohhhhhhs" and "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhs" just do not come as frequently and with such uumph. I almost want to start "ooohhhing" and "ahhhhhing" at mundane stuff, like in the grocery line or something. Maybe it will feel really good.

Year of Earth Ox

Today is the first day of the Chinese year of the Earth Ox. I'm a Water Ox so maybe the ambient environment this year will give some form to my flow. Here's 5 windows into what catches my eye from today's walk.



I didn't make this...a tree plus wind did that. I claim the photo as my piece for this walk since I didn't need to do anything to the arrangement to make it pleasing. This is very similar to the Chinese character Shen, the conscious aspect of the heart. Can also be seen as a smiley face with its tongue sticking out. The tongue is the heart's representative in the head.







3 views of city reflected in river just after sunset.









































Venus seen through wires.