Sick

 

 

Paper sculptures by Jen Stark

 

 

Replenish by Bassnectar

 

I don’t know about people, but I’ve definitely been into clouds lately.

But the clouds that really stole the show were at Lollapalooza in Grant Park Chicago on Friday August 5. They seemingly coordinated with the music, dancing in the sky.

 

Are we prisoners of perception?

A friend of mine noted how a dog can’t help but to hide itself during a storm, since its limited knowledge makes it impossible for the dog to rationalize, and therefore feel comfortable with, the cause of flashing light and loud, rumbling thunder. The dog does not perceive enough information to make sense out of the situation and let it be, so its instincts lead the canine to be scared. The dog doesn’t understand, and therefore cannot control its reaction.

Similarly, when I was young, my limited knowledge would cause me to have impulses to open chests, check the closet for monsters, to touch a certain object to feel its texture. I would make myself do it. Sometimes the little man in my head would tell me that if I didn’t, something bad would happen to me. Because I did not understand what is uniformly true about the world, did not understand what mysteries could possibly lie in every crevice and corner, I let my impulses lead the way. I would go off course just to make sure that old red trunk really didn’t have any treasures in it, because at that age, you’re constantly surprised at what is and is not reality.

I was playing with early feelings of impulse. Why was I so convinced that if I didn’t follow my impulse to put 3 leaves in my pocket and keep them there till the end of the day, that something bad was going to happen to me? Even though I don’t forcefully make myself climb up a fence to see what happens, or jump on the bridge to make sure it doesn’t bend, or turn on the sink 3 times before I use it, like I used to, I’m still a prisoner of limited knowledge. Like the dog who hides during the storm, when we don’t understand something, we will automatically revert to instinctual impulses to deal with the situation. Impulses that we are prisoners to, but in the end, only set us free.

 

I’m proud to say my close friend Alex Schoeffner is responsible for creating the image above,

and that Lauren Hansen is responsible for creating the page I link to below.

http://redrockcola.tumblr.com/

 

 

psychedelic nugget^^

Trick Candles

 

 

I have cactuses on my porch. After watching this video, I’ve been encouraged to put googly eyes on them.

 

 

 

Crayon Miracle by Locust Toybox. Makes one look at the world lackadaisically. Seriously just look around.

 

 

Yarn bombing, yarnstorming, guerrilla knitting, or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk.

While yarn installations – called yarn bombs or yarnstorms – may last for years, they are considered non-permanent, and, unlike graffiti, can be easily removed if necessary. Nonetheless, the practice is still technically illegal, though it is not often prosecuted vigorously.

The practice is believed to have originated in the U.S. (2005) with Texas knitters trying to find a creative way to use their leftover and unfinished knitting projects, but it has since spread worldwide.

 

 

I took this clip at Wicker Park fest this weekend. A small child enjoys octopus above the crowd. Mostly better without sound.

 

 

 

 

 

^{My brother}

 

Trick candles

hahaha

Come Around

 

I need to release somewhere to make meaning.

For if I didn’t release, I’d be eternally stuck in my own brain,

unable to determine whether or not what I’m doing is real.

I must send myself out to the environment,

just to make positive I am still receiving back.

 

 

If everything we do effects everything else, and everything else effects us, we might as well only be doing good. After all, it only benefits us.

I think that’s what they call karma.

 

 

I listened to this mix as I wrote.

DFRNT - Dubstep For Deep Heads Mix by Dubstep For Deep Heads

 

 

 

Recently I’ve been making lists of things that bother me. Broken bike, cut up heel, lack of privacy, trouble writing a short story, a friend gone for the summer, another one not telling the truth.

The cool thing about these lists is that they become obsolete.

When I look at the list from last week, I can check off a lot of things that no longer bother me.

While the purpose of writing the list is to get bothersome things outside of me and onto paper, so they don’t suffocate my brighter emotions,

the real advantage is being able to look back and physically see, on paper, the temporary nature of traumas that we let hinder our day to day lives.

The progression of time makes every issue or negative emotion just a piece of the past, which should logically give us utmost hope for the present.

 

 

 

http://squittybubbler.com/

Imagination Marathon

 

I always have in mind that my readers should listen to the music I provide, for it may create a mood to read the rest of my post with. Today you have a choice,

Either some light drum n bass, to remind me (and you) of a fantasy parallel universe called Montreal…

 

Chasing Dreams- by Mutated Forms

or for those who enjoy a light dub track with psychedelic and reggae undertones, and like drum circles-

Strollin- by Matty G.

 

Now that you’ve made a decision, continue on and enjoy the post, and once again, pretend my writing voice is actually in a British accent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I was biking to the beach and a chipmunk hit my leg.

?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Saturday, July 16, world-renowned glass blower Josh Simpson will be doing a coffee and lecture at the Lee Block Gallery at Northwestern in Evanston. Coffee starts at 10:30. He’s dope so…see you there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine a color you’ve never seen before. I dare you! That would be quite an imagination marathon, imagining so hard for so long that you actually become exhausted from it. If only it were a bit easier to stay in the imagination, everyday life would fall into sections of whimsical and surreal moments, and we would never fully grasp a concept of true reality. We could pretend the mailman is a villain and spend our entire afternoon around that thought. We could imagine that each step is one step closer not to the refrigerator, but to a time machine. Living in a world structured by the imagination, we might even be able to discover a new color.

If we lived and played in a make-believe world like we did when we were young, one might argue that we wouldn’t subsist in the adult world, we wouldn’t be able to make proper decisions. However, no matter adult or child, we’re all still living in our imaginations, just in a different part of them. Instead of adventuring to outer space every time we close the car door, we thrive in the part of the imagination that believes what we’re doing is rational, believes that we’re perceiving without fallacy, believes that our decisions are our own and not simply a consequence of small external causes…

What I’m really trying to say is that as long as we are oblivious to true reality, which will be forever, we might as well believe in the impossible. Forget the rules of thought and contemplation. No matter if you’re the president of the United States making decisions for national security, or me, sitting on my porch pretending I’m hiding from an aggravated flock of seagulls, you’re living in an imaginary world. A world born in your own mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently I picked up a book that explains a lot of my thoughts. Seemingly a discourse passed around by the counterculture of the 60s and 70s, here are some excerpts from Hugh Prather’s I Touch the Earth, the Earth Touches Me. Take some time to read them twice, absorb and enjoy.

 

“Most of the conversations I hear are carried on as if there really were such a thing as an answer, and as if the people present were actually in possession of it”

“There is no such thing as a mistake. There is only what happens”

“My growth does not seem to be a matter of learning lessons, but of learning the old lessons again and again. The wisdom doesn’t change, only the situations”

“Tonight I discovered nature. For the first time I saw it. For the first time I didn’t look at it, I listened to it- not with my ears, although I did that too, but with my eyes. Instead of pushing out at it, trying to understand it, I let it speak to me. On my left, some distance away, was the highway. From there I could hear man—-man always arriving, never quite there. Then I looked at the stars. They were silent, and powerful beyond all effort. They were stars being stars and therefore brilliantly alive…how puny are words about stars”

 

 

 

DUBSTEP! DRUM N BASS! Free downloads!

vinylpenetration.com