Traveling again lately due to a project in New York. Being bi-coastal has been interesting for sure. LA and New York are to very different worlds. Really enjoying flying again. Airports and airplanes are great places to meditate. Connecting with various levels of humanity and realizing our underlying oneness by observing people in transit, uprooted, on vacation, on business, with drama and comedy. It's a great exercise in patience. Waiting in security lines, wondering how many signs will still not be understood, no matter how iconographic they become. And then there are the hours on the airplane. Confined. Constrained. Up close and personal with complete strangers. A wonderful opportunity to go deep inside, leave the body for a little while and float in other worlds. Serene...
Learning to direct your mind sustained on one focal point is at the core of many spiritual practices. One of the core themes of the last year for me has been to focus on the present moment, let go of past, let go of future and be here, now. Instead of wondering, questioning, worrying, I have found myself shifting toward listening, seeing without looking for anything, paying attention to the archetypal experience around me, and being calm in my own center. A year ago I decided to take most of 2007 off so I could let go of the noise of everyday life and sink slowly down to the center of who I am and what I am here to do. Since, a whole new array of new archetypal experiences have entered my life, from the quality and kind of people I am attracting into my life to very novel experiences like talking with trees (and hearing them talk back). We will see where this leads ;-) For now, I know I need to focus on my innermost core, my personal dharma in this world and I know that as the times are shifting, there is no more alternative. Whatever is not authentic in our lives will slowly but surely or brutally burn away - not a pleasant path. It seems more reasonable to embrace the path with curiousity, wonder and excitement - and first and foremost with love for self and life.
As Martha Graham wrote about artists in this beautiful quote my friend just sent me:
"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will never have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than others."
Well, it's time for everyone to become an artist and experience each of our lives as the unique wonders they are, and to see the future as a possibility for stories we get to write...
For this year's birthday celebration I got to start my day with two hours of yoga with my teacher, a wonderful champagne lunch, a couple of hours in a deprivation tank by the ocean, a walk down the beach during sunset, lots more champagne and blissful passing out. Thanks to my friend Barry who was a delightful shepherd during these festivities... (he also took the picture above last year on my birthday in Hawaii)
Looking forward to the coming year and even more so delectably grateful to be here, right now ;-)
... to make some changes... There is a lot of talk about 2012 going on, just like a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about 2000. What fascinates me is that people seem to pick these dates, and whatever will happen, are sitting around waiting for it. Why not start changing life now? Why not decide to cut the bullshit, move forward and radically change life until there are no more compromises? Carolin Myss in her book "Sacred Contracts" talks about the prostitute archetype, that little voice in our head that tells us that where we are at is not soooo bad, and that if we wanted to change it, there are all these scary unknowns. Thus it would be sooo much better to stay where we are and not risk anything, right?? Well, no. Fuck suffering. Change everything. Change at least one thing in your life every day. A lovely saying I read once said that the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that while unsuccessful people spend their time, successful people use it. Gets even better when you translate it into German: "spending" translates to "verbrauchen", "Brauch" meaning habit or custom - doing the same things over and over again. "use" translates to "verwenden", which is related to "Wandel", meaning Change.... So, use your time, it's running out ;-) Check out the world clock my friend Noa just sent me: http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf. Definitely provides some sense of urgency, no?
Wow... can't begin to say how mindblowing Peru was... Think that will require a whole long conversation at some point... Since I came back, life has been equally wonderfully crazy. The loft life has been quite magickal, tons of amazing people have been in and out of here in the last weeks and it just keeps on going... Lots on the plate these days, so time-management is becoming a renewed focus, gotta get evermore efficient!
In the meantime, there are random fun art things as well, while I haven't got to make music any time lately, at least there are the occasional midnight collaborations. The pictures on the right where created by my neighbor Logan, a wonderfully talented photographer and artist, resulting spontaneously from a conversation he and I were having about such lovely and dear concepts as the meaning of life and dharma...
Also made the commitment to update this page more frequently, so hopefully I will be able to catch up with myself soon ;-)
I really need to get into the habit of updating this page more often as too much happens too quickly... The last months have been turbulent again. Was in Europe for a quick business/pleasure trip, working in London on another film finance/IT project, which was the primary reason for my trip. Then hopped over the channel to Amsterdam to visit my delightful cousin (the same one I visited in India), who is currently working there for Greenpeace. Went to a Greenpeace office party on a houseboat and had a most interesting and disturbing conversation with their ocean delegate. Really a sad situation further spoiling my love for fish. It appears that over 90% of the bigger predator fish (e.g. Tuna) are completely gone, so are 75% of all the other fish, and deep sea fishing has already destroyed twice the size of the continental US underneath the sea... Makes it even more urgent that people transform their understanding of the world. From Amsterdam, I went on to Germany for a quick visit with my family and some of my amazing friends there. Always a wonderful recharge. Took my dad back with me to LA and had a great time with him here. Quite a luxury to get to spend a few days with him mano a mano. Usually, when I am visiting, I only get brief moments here and there, so it was great to actually have time to talk with him. He is an amazing man and I am grateful for our relationship. Without a break, another lovely friend of mine from Germany visited me right after my dad, and I am just now slowly catching up with my world again. In between all this, we had three great events with the Center for Conscious Creativity under the banner of "The Transformational Power of Sound&Vision." And while all this was going on... I decided to move from my beloved Los Feliz neighborhood, and am currently preparing to move to the Brewery, an artist complex just east of downtown Los Angeles. Indeed a former brewery (Pabst Blue Ribbon, yum), the place today houses over 300 artist studios. Am utterly thrilled to be moving there as I love the energy of creativity that is buzzing around the concrete walls down there. Look forward to the effect this will have on my own art, and cannot wait to throw parties and seminars there... Am planning a thesis seminar toward the end of July after returning from my trip to Peru to partake in a conference on Shamanism, which should be quite interesting... So... yeah... it never stops... could go on, but need to get working on some of my other projects ;-)
One of the nice things about having control over my time lately is that after years and years of working with the Internet, I lately have actually had the time to "surf the web" a bit and come across all these lovely digital meme packages... Below is one of them that I rather enjoyed. Am still trying to find out who made it so I can credit them properly, but maybe that is not that important in today's day and age. Just got an invite from Artist X on myspace, who, I guess, was a moderately successful musician in the typical sense, but recently decided to go incognito and focus all his marketing around his music and its content rather than his persona. Nice approach. Now we just need to figure out anonymous and automatic value exchange models and we will no longer have to worry about copyrights and money (maybe it's just that we will decide to help and work with each other because we realize that in all our separation we are just one after all) ;-) The whole digital media phenomenon is curious. I think it will probably serve as the straw that will break the back of our current economic systems, but then, what is art for if not for bringing about transformation?? ;-)
I remember the day when those big ominous boxes arrived and the technician set up this magical machine that looked like a big cabinet attached to a typewriter. It was the bomb. I wasn't allowed to touch my dad's "Computer" for the first couple of months (until I sort of took over). I remember my joy and excitement about hearing the sound of those two 8inch floppy disks spinning, that green monochrome monitor lighting up with the CPM command prompt, those 64kB RAM clicking away... Since, I have had 8086s, 8088s, 286s, 386s, Pentiums, AMDs..... all the way up to my last two machines which I love. They are both tablets. Definitely as close to how computers should be in my mind. BUT... a couple of days ago I finally crossed over. Many of my friends have had Macs from the get go and avoided the corporate tie-in. Many of them have used Macs for their art for many years. My official reason was Final Cut Pro, as I have several movie projects coming up. Then there is the Joymonkey record, so I decided to buy an mBox and ProTools as well, which is where many hours of my life went since. My first two experiments with it can be downloaded here: "One Track Mind" and "Divine g(od)-u-i-dance" (in collaboration with Stosh Machek). Have fun... More to come on that... Back to the Mac... LOVE this machine. It appears to be the fastest PC I have ever had, too... At least so far. But the design, the usability, the all around concept of this gorgeous Powerbook Pro I know get to play with is just absolutely stunning. Have no other words for it. Feel like I bought my first computer...
On a general update note: The Sin and Soup Salon was a delight and the next one is already in the planning. Have been loving the artist life. Last week I had the first "normal" day of my life be so exciting that I did not want to go to bed and could not wait to get up the next morning (2 hours later). Quite a fascinating time and I am enjoying allowing the artist in me emerge a bit... We shall see where that leads ;-)
In only mere hours I will finish this project that has kept me busy since last August. Can't really believe it yet. Will definitely miss some of the lovely and amazing people I got to work with, but hopefully will be able to see them outside of this environment. Will also miss my little rituals around taking the train in the morning, getting tea and a croissant... Not sure how much I will miss global media and financial systems, but then both might appear in my world all too soon ;-) March will be about taking a break. Outside of the short week in Hawaii last year, it feels like I haven't had a break in quite a while. So a few weeks of relaxing are definitely in order. After that, it's on to writing my thesis, which is now years overdue. Apart from that, I will finally be able to pay more attention to the Center for Conscious Creativity. Have been neglecting that too much in the last years of traveling and can't wait to go knee-deep back into that. Thirdly, I am going to be spending some time marketing my eCourse "Six Sigma for Your Life" with the help of my fantastic new assistant (Thank you, Michelle! You rock!). Then, there is Joymonkey #3 - "Who is creating your reality?", my third audio project. Might also venture into visual media this year. Would really love to put together a documentary on the transformational power of art and media... We will see... In the meantime, I am also starting a new party series under the name of "Sin&Soup Salons" the first one coming up tomorrow (flyer is on the right). Well, anyway... gotta get back to the work I have left here... All the best!
news 
A year ago I decided to take most of 2007 off so I could let go of the noise of everyday life and sink slowly down to the center of who I am and what I am here to do. Since, a whole new array of new archetypal experiences have entered my life, from the quality and kind of people I am attracting into my life to very novel experiences like talking with trees (and hearing them talk back). We will see where this leads ;-)
... to make some changes... There is a lot of talk about 2012 going on, just like a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about 2000. What fascinates me is that people seem to pick these dates, and whatever will happen, are sitting around waiting for it. Why not start changing life now? Why not decide to cut the bullshit, move forward and radically change life until there are no more compromises? 
Wow... can't begin to say how mindblowing Peru was... Think that will require a whole long conversation at some point... Since I came back, life has been equally wonderfully crazy. The loft life has been quite magickal, tons of amazing people have been in and out of here in the last weeks and it just keeps on going... Lots on the plate these days, so time-management is becoming a renewed focus, gotta get evermore efficient!
I really need to get into the habit of updating this page more often as too much happens too quickly... The last months have been turbulent again. Was in Europe for a quick business/pleasure trip, working in London on another film finance/IT project, which was the primary reason for my trip. Then hopped over the channel to Amsterdam to visit my delightful cousin (the same one I visited in India), who is currently working there for Greenpeace. Went to a Greenpeace office party on a houseboat and had a most interesting and disturbing conversation with their ocean delegate. Really a sad situation further spoiling my love for fish. It appears that over 90% of the bigger predator fish (e.g. Tuna) are completely gone, so are 75% of all the other fish, and deep sea fishing has already destroyed twice the size of the continental US underneath the sea... Makes it even more urgent that people transform their understanding of the world.
I remember the day when those big ominous boxes arrived and the technician set up this magical machine that looked like a big cabinet attached to a typewriter. It was the bomb. I wasn't allowed to touch my dad's "Computer" for the first couple of months (until I sort of took over). I remember my joy and excitement about hearing the sound of those two 8inch floppy disks spinning, that green monochrome monitor lighting up with the CPM command prompt, those 64kB RAM clicking away...
