So the last week of our class, I ended up in Seattle twice:
The first time was Monday the 6th, my friends who used to live in Olympia just started a bi-monthly event in South Seattle at this bar Maxim’s. They’re in a rap duo called Garlic Man and Chikn and are my favorite friends to play shows with, as they are always so entertaining, right up to their matching outfits and choreographed dance moves. I opened the first night of the event with an hour long DJ set, which I was treating like a practice for the upcoming show in San Francisco that I will be playing at the end of the month.
Then I headed up to Seattle again for a show put on by Soulection, one of my favorite labels from Los Angeles. One of my favorite producers was playing and although I usually dislike when a producer does a DJ set rather than play their own music, he (ESTA) nailed it, and there was not a dull moment in the entire set. I was at the front and seriously thought I might melt from the heat of the room. There was a breakdance circle going on near the back of the crowd, which I got a great view of when my friends and I accidentally walked right through it. Everyone was smiling though, so no harm!
Unfortunately I got sick coming back to town the following day, and have been fighting off a cough for the better part of the week now. Because of my work schedule and being sick I might have to wait till I get back from the Bay to go check out Portland, but in the meantime I will be reading my books. So far I dove into Pink Noises, and have been loving reading all the interviews with everyone from DJ’s to renowned experimental musician Pauline Oliveros, who currently is a professor at Mills College where a couple of my friends go!
Right now I’m working on two different DJ sets: one for a radio show in Canada, and the other for my show in San Francisco, so I think I’ll get back to that before I run out of time!

After quite the extravaganza, I arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon! Unfortunately, I ran into some issues along the way. Although I left Saturday afternoon, my car broke down around Yreka, California, and I had to wait a few days for it to get fixed. I stayed at the nearby Motel 6, where I was able to read my books and try to relax. However I was on edge the whole time, waiting for m car to hopefully let me finish my trip that I intended. Yreka seemed to be a dying town, with the few historic buildings being the main attraction to the city itself, as well as trout fishing. However, most of the business seemed to be centered around the highway, with bright fast food and gas station signs lining the sky. However there were many god nature trails where I could sit and enjoy my surroundings. Once I was able to hit the road again on Monday, I didn’t have much time before it got late and I had to find a place to sleep. I spent a night sleeping on a friend of a friend’s couch in San Fransisco at an apartment near San Fransisco State. We didn’t talk much (due to the fact that I came in at around 1 AM and he had work the next day), but I thanked him for his hospitality and left him some treats (a bag of beef jerky). In the morning when I got to my car, I was greeted by quite the surprise; my ancient GPS that I have been using for years had finally called it quits and stopped working. With no map, smartphone or slightest sense of direction, I began to try to retrace my steps from the night before to try and find the highway again. This did not work, and I ended up getting pulled over by the police for talking on my phone (talking to my dad as he was trying to help me find the highway vie Google Maps) and getting let off with a warning (phew), as well as directions to the highway entrance. Who knew you couldn’t talk on the phone while driving in California? I didn’t!

After around six hours of driving, I began to approach the greater Los Angeles area. Although I was close, this did not mean that I had any idea what I was doing. The highway system took quite a bit of patience, as I had to pull over multiple times and call people for extra directional assistance. But it was no big deal, as I eventually managed to find the house in the late afternoon. While all of these setbacks were quite stressful, I remembered to enjoy myself. While I didn’t have control over many of these situations, I did have control over how I reacted, and how easy it would have been for me to become fed up, and to let these problems manifest themselves into my time here. But once I pulled into the right driveway, an instant feeling of relief came over me. It was great to be able to sit in my car with m mission complete, watching the palm trees sway in the wind. The heat made me feel as if I was sinking into my seat, and I was able to rest my shoulders from the stress of travel.

Right when I walked into the house, I knew I had found the right place for me to be. Olivier, a 69 year old man from France, answered the door and helped me with my things. He immediately gave me so much information about the house, as well as his experiences working as a producer in the music industry when he was younger. The house that I’m staying at was originally owned by the drummer for Toto, and after getting a tour of it, I fell in love. It has a very 50′s vintage look to it, but the garage was turned into a music studio complete with analog recording devices, synthesizers, guitars, basses, fancy microphones, and a vocal booth for recording. After settling in, I was already out the door and going to a show. I drove through Laurel Canyon to go see Arca at Hollywood Forever’s Masonic Lodge.

Arca is a Venezuelan producer based out of London, who plays experimental industrial music. His songs ride a fine line between beautiful and horrific, as they barrage you with alien sounds and bass, and move frantically through themselves. On my way down to Los Angeles, I had been listening to Arca a lot, and didn’t even know he was playing until I arrived! I felt like Arca was a really good choice to listen to while driving through California, giving the intense highway driving an edge to it, matching the overstimulation of my surroundings. The show was very powerful, as the songs screamed at high volumes, paired with intense visuals by Jesse Kanda. It was a very 21st century experience; the vibe of the set changed dramatically many times, and it felt like  could really see the beauty and grime of being a human in the 21st century portrayed through song. After the show, I walked around Hollywood and pondered my experience. It reminded me of last weeks blog post, where I discussed the importance of being present in life and critical thought. I felt like the set did a great job of this, as it ranged from absolute beauty to pounding bass and chaos. Much like the world we live in today, Arca’s music is at times abrasive, and suddenly can become relaxed and peaceful, and fluctuate between the two. I found it to be very powerful, and it was a great kickoff to my project.

Even the door handles and locks are different. Food labels are in German, and most people speak English, Thankfully. The S-Bahn train does not have clearly labeled destinations because many trains leave from one place to many other places, and frankly, I’m confused. There are three sections of the city to ride the S-Bahn on, A,B and C. It is almost easy to buy freedom of exploration, except for the chipped card difference between Europe and America, but even that is an easy obstacle. There is a large dance community of everything such as yoga, burning man, concerts, tantra, and people drink beer in the street! The people in the streets are diverse, everything from punk, to classy. There are people out all hours of the evening, being loud and having a lot of fun it seems. The buses are constant and the S-Bahn takes you far and fast. The train station guards on duty don’t check for passes often, but when they do, and you don’t have one it costs 40 euro instead of 3.  All of the buildings are tall, and built efficiently for space.

My host grew up in England, one room mate is from Australia, and the other from Vienna. Two are subletting and the one who’s room I’m in is leaving for a week for a Tantra workshop. This to me says a lot about the transient nature of Berlin. It is the epicenter of change it seems. Most people speak German to each other, but nearly everyone who I speak in English to has responded in English. I am feeling disappointed that Americans aren’t required from a young age to be multi linguistic. I feel as though my education is lacking. I am more inspired to learn another language than I ever have been, as I see the importance of information exchange.

Berlin was divided by the East and West with barbed wire on August 13th 1961, and the Berlin wall (to the west) or the “antifascist protective rampart”, or “border” (To the East) was built a few days later. The East claimed they were protecting their people from the “fruits of capitalism” (Ladd p. 19). When the wall was built everything surrounding the wall became gray and desolate, the life was sucked out of the 100 miles it stretched. Guards were placed intentionally. The transit system had to be abandoned, and gas and water mains were also disrupted. West Berlin supported new age rock artists, and youth on the East, listening through the wall would be pushed away by guards on duty. The separation that the wall created seemed like a mindless political decision when East Germany sealed off West Germany lines and the West did not intervene, The East then “surrendered its claims to West Berlin” (Ladd p. 21) The Eastside Gallery of the Berlin Wall is the longest standing open air gallery. It is a gallery because the art stretches for miles. What is left of the wall is continuing to collect graffiti, and new history is writing over the past. Berlin is known for its constant destruction and rebuilding. “Many of the buildings that survived the war did not survive the peace” (Ladd p. 37) Berlin wants to move on with the future, not be held down by the past.

Exploring Berlin I realize that there are few historical buildings left. There are some main historical pieces such as the train station, and some harmless, abandoned buildings that I have no clue about what there use was. It is clear that most of the housing developments are new. When I first arrived to Berlin, I rode the S-Bahn to the complex I am staying in, on Warschauer Strasse. All of the streets have German names and are pronounced different than how they look. The city stays up late. I hear people partying outside until I go to bed at 3am. I am near the center of Berlin, everything that i want to access is available a walk or a bus away. One thing I noticed to be different is there is a median sidewalk between the two sidewalks next to buildings. The is where the bus and above ground train picks people up. This is also a good way to get out of the way of construction. I hear construction happening now. This is a city of constant movement, as well as tourists. I blend in, so long as I don’t speak. And when I do, people kindly speak English.

The next few days I will be exploring musical venues, art galleries and more architecture. I want to see if there is a clear difference between East and West Berlin. Each morning I wake up with new curiosities, on average at 8am no matter how late I stay up because I don’t want to miss out on what I can find here!

Andrew Jackson Jihad, a satirical Arizona folk punk band turned emo-skate punk, is on tour with New York’s Jeff Rosenstock, former lead of The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Bomb the Music Industry!. Both have long-lasting ties to San José through Asian Man Records, a staple ska/punk label run by Mike “Bruce Lee” Park that started in his parents’ garage in Santa Cruz and has since upgraded to his parents’ garage in Los Gatos (a wealthy suburb to the southwest of San José). Asian Man has released the greater deal of AJJ and BtMI!’s music, and both bands have made good friends in-town as well as with each other, resulting in frequent collaboration.

This collaboration is plainly visible in Jeff Rosenstock’s backup band: Mike Huegenor is singer and guitarist for such San José bands as Shinobu, Hard Girls, and Classics of Love. Kevin Higuchi has taught drums at San Jose State University and San Jose Pro Drum and played in the bands Insolence and Whiskey Avengers. John DeDomenici, also formerly of Bomb the Music Industry! and The Arrogant Sons of Bitches.These four musicians (including Jeff) also form Mike Park’s backup band under The Bruce Lee Band (though they played together as Jeff Rosenstock Internet Posers before that).

I saw these bands twice over the last week, once in Seattle with friends and once in Portland on my own, and I got to talk briefly with Huegenor, DeDomenici, and Higuchi. However, as Huegenor said when I contacted him ahead of time about an interview, there was no good time or place before, during, or after the show to have a real discussion. I am hoping to see them return to the bay after the tour.

The particularly interesting thing about seeing the bands twice was to examine the differences between the crowds from the different cities. First off, the general air before the show in Portland was much brighter. People showed up in more colorful clothing and there were more kids (by which I mean teens) joking around and making noise, whereas in Seattle, everyone was in the typical all-black getups and there more of an air of everyone trying to act cool. This might be related to the nature and locations of the venues. Neumos in Seattle was a dark club in what felt like the middle of downtown. Walking around, I saw dozens of different posters for upcoming shows there from well known artists (including Questlove), indicating that it might be a major stage, both musically and socially. On the other hand, WonderBallroom in Portland felt more set in suburbia and had a much more open and colorful interior. Additionally, the ceiling lights in Portland came on between acts, which took away some of the edge but made it feel like a safer place, possibly attracting a younger and more relaxed crowd.

Despite this, the Portland show turned out a lot rougher, both for the bands and the audience. Both cities’ crowds had enormous energy and seemed very invested in the bands (I saw a several people lost in their own worlds for Chumped (NY) and The Smith Street Band’s (AUS) sets) and the singer from the Smith Street Band mentioned that Seattle and Portland had been the best shows of the tour so far (not to brag here). Yet the experiences in the mosh/dance pits were very different. The pit in Seattle flowed a lot more, like people understood the rhythms and knew how to move in concert with them. Such was the fluidity of the crowd that I would repeatedly find myself on the other side of the room from my friends, but could I easily dance my way back. In Portland however, there were a lot more hard elbows, the crowd rarely seemed to get into a unified rhythm, and people were generally more violent. This notably progressed over the course of the night, likely as people drank more or as a different group of people joined for the later bands.

The bands themselves ended up in some conflict with the audience at several points while in Portland. During Jeff Rosenstock’s set, he made a joke that they were Andrew Jackson Jihad, and that the audience should give them all their money, for which he caught a few coins to the face, as well as a few bills. During Hajj’s actual set, singer/guitarist Sean Bonnette was also hit in the face with something that looked like a bandana, to which he disappointedly frowned and said “Same to you.” I saw nothing like this while in Seattle.

The other major issue was that people refused to stop crowd-surfing, even after the band had taken time to ask people not to and after security had come in and told everyone, “When you start tryingto get on top of people, it’s time for you to leave.” Particularly, members of AJJ showed concern for those in the front, who were repeatedly smashed up against the stage and would get caught up in crowd-surfers’ legs. For the most part however, people were considerate in stopping and helping people who had lost shoes or glasses or phones, or who needed help getting up, though this did not prevent a bizarre series of vortex-like situations, where half of the crowd ended up getting dragged down under each other.

In Portland I even overheard that someone had found a knife on the floor, which may have been some kind of grizzly allusion to Jeff Rosenstock’s recent music video Nausea, where knives are passed out at the door to a show, and someone jumps on stage to stab Jeff and pull confetti and tacos out of his chest cavity (definitely worth a watch).

I had planned to attend a third show by these bands in San Francisco to try to compare the experience in the Bay Area as opposed to the Pacific Northwest, but as I have detailed in my last post, there were complications, and that did not end up happening. Hopefully, I will get the chance to interview some of the band members as/if they return from the tour and get their fresh perspectives on performing in different cities across the country.

P.S. I had also planned to take photos, but apparently my camera and several other items went missing somewhere in the midst of repeatedly packing and unpacking my life in the past few weeks.

I made this into a page instead of a post.  Oopp Here it is anyway.

In the second half of the eighteenth century city dwellers began to travel to the country to restore health to their bodies and souls (130 de Botton). Wordsworth believed that regular travel through nature was a necessary antidote to the evils of the city (136 de Botton). Wordsworth thought that one should be able to render their feelings more sane, pure and permanent, or more consonant to Nature (145 de Botton).

de Botton explains that animals are our humans’ contemporaries in that both eat, sleep and breathe and that we are on this planet that is chiefly made of rocks and vapours and silence (147 de Botton). I agree with him but had never considered the importance of a more equal life with animals since we are both a small percentage of the world.

Wordsworth said that we may see in nature certain scenes that will stay with us throughout our lives and offer us, every time they enter our consciousness, both a contrast to and relief from present difficulties. He termed such experiences in nature ‘spots of time’. (151 de Botton) de Botton experiences that ‘spot of time’ when sitting near and field and a stream with trees nearby. His time was interrupted by thoughts of work (152 de Botton). I guess I should be expecting some times throughout my days in Paris where I will live inside myself for long enough to worry about how my brother is doing without me. I’ll try to just accept this behavior of my and not be disappointed in losing a few moments in Paris.

Sublime has been used since the eighteenth century to describe the way one feels while in the presence of something of nature that is awe-inspiring, indescribable. Compared to the sublime, ‘man seems merely dust postponed: the sublime as an encounter-pleasurable; intoxicating, even-with human weakness in the face of the strength, age and size of the universe’ (159, 164 de Botton). de Botton asked ‘Why seek out this feeling of smallness-delight in it even?’ (165 de Botton).

I think this is because we so that we don’t feel so much responsibility in life. When one can see that they are not so large compared too much of the world then one can accept the fact that they are not capable of saving everyone and everything from harm. In fact when met with the sublime there is a reminder that humans are supposed to make mistakes. de Botton states it more clearly than I when he speaks of sublime landscapes;

to touch on the crux of their appeal, they allow us to conceive of a familiar inadequacy
in a new and more helpful way. Sublime places repeat in grand terms a lesson that
ordinary life typically introduces viciously: that the universe is mightier than we are,
that we are frail and temporary and have no alternative but to accept limitations on our
will; that we must bow to necessities greater than ourselves (167 de Botton).

de Botton says that there isn’t a need to feel anxiety toward facing something that is so much powerful than us. ‘What defines our will can provoke anger and resentment, but it may also arouse awe and respect’ (165 de Botton).

Richard Sennett spoke of Baudelaire’s opinion that the solitude of city dwellers is not sublime: ‘it seems to enhance the ordinary business of life’ (127 Sennett). Baudelaire didn’t always have this opinion but he learned from, Constantin Guys, friend and painter, that there is no need for any aspect of life to become dull. Life in Paris had become dull for Baudelaire. The Parisians of his day seemed bored by themselves as much as by one another (121 Sennett).

I think, even in an exciting city, we can find ourselves feeling bored with the many tourist sites especially if there have been numerous stops at any one type of site. For instance visits to many Gothic style churches could leave us without a way to distinguish one from another. This, in turn, could cause us to not care about seeing other sites. This may not be so bad though. It would give us a chance to see the regular aspects of life in the city of our inquiries and this would be a more realistic study of our cities.

Whether I am in a museum or visiting a school, I will be mindful of the pitfall of not noticing regular life. I will be sure to look for ordinary people performing everyday tasks. This is what I want to remember when I am back home in Washington.

Rai

It’s high-time that I resume my updates. For the past two weeks I have failed to meet posting deadlines because I have been putting out fires left and right.

Last Monday night (April 6) I was driving through northern California to my brother’s house on Route 101–in heavy rain. On a notoriously sharp turn, another car came screaming around on the inside, halfway into my lane, and I had to swerve hard to miss them, sending me fishtailing and ultimately putting the front of my car into an embankment. I was fine, but my radiator and frontal structure took a very serious hit. The other car did not stop, which leaves me with no insurance.

My car was pretty banged up (I couldn’t get the driver-side door open for a while). But it seemed to drive alright, so I pushed on to my brother’s house, and in the morning I set off to try to catch my show in San Francisco.

I made it to Santa Rosa. At that point, my car started making horrible noises and throwing up warning lights, evidently because the inverter coolant had all leaked out. I got towed to a dealership that gave me an estimate of $10,000. I had $15 total. I spent Tuesday night in Santa Rosa, sleeping in the back of my car, missing my show and consequentially causing my friend to miss it as well (I was her only way to get back to Davis). I convinced my mom to upgrade our shared AAA membership, so that we could get 100 miles of towing, just about enough to get it to San José, however it did not take effect for two days.

On Wednesday, I caught a bus to San José–leaving my car behind–and spent the night at my dad’s. I spent a lot of Thursday resting and figuring out what to do about my car (I’m still not sure), and on Friday I bussed back to Santa Rosa and got towed to a collision center in San José, where I got a lowball estimate of $12,000. Right now, the best plan seems to be to sell it for scrap, and put that money towards buying a used car.

As for my actual project, it’s starting off pretty well. Before getting to California, I attended two shows by a group of touring bands (Chumped (NY), Jeff Rosenstock (NY and CA), The Smith Street Band (AUS), and Andrew Jackson Jihad (AZ)), which I will detail in a following post. I came just $1.10 of the bus/train fare I needed to make it to a ska show in San Francisco, but I managed to catch two of the bands at a small Santa Cruz show the next night. San José so far looks to be in as much of a music drought as it is in a water drought, but there are a few upcoming shows of interest in San Francisco and Santa Cruz, as well as Sadfest 2KX5, a small punk art/music festival in Dublin and San José at the end of May, which will coincide with Fanimecon, San José’s anime convention.

I have a number of friends and contacts, who I’ll be talking to in order to find out about shows and to arrange interviews with musicians and others involved with the music business/scene. In between these, I mean to visit record shops, music stores, recording studios, venues, and record labels to conduct interviews with the employees, managers, and patrons, as well as to learn of other music stores, record labels, shows, &c. and start flushing out my network. I mean to visualize this network both digitally and physically, though I’m still working out the cork board for my wall. As part of my interview process, I will be asking people about which parts of the Bay and San José they have particular relationships with, whether those be neighborhoods, houses, schools, or whatever else, and I mean to express this as part of my network, which will be overlaid on maps of San José and the greater area.

I will also intend to explore the whole of San José via skateboard and public transit. While trying to find the Greyhound station downtown on Friday, it became painfully clear to me that I don’t really know the town at all, so I mean to go all around, sketching, filming, and photographing. Then if I can manage it, I’ll pull it all into a multimedia piece (every week if I can manage) featuring either original or local music. That’d be cool! That’d be difficult!

Songs are sung all over the world with many different purposes. Some people act though that songs are to be sung sacredly and only done for religion, others believe anytime is a good time to sing a song. This week’s reading is Armbruster’s Before Seattle Rocked: A city and it’s music. In the first few chapters it touches on the Duwamish Native American Tribe with their music as well as the fusion of the settlers music/work songs.

The Duwamish Tribe, much like some of the citizens of Ghana see music as an incorporation of everyday life. There is not a second thought on wether or not a certain time is a good time for sining, and there seem to be no insecurities on what exactly to sing about. For example: basket weaving songs, fishing songs, gambling songs, welcoming songs, etc. all played to the beat of a few drums and many voices (Armbruster, pg. 13, 2007). Armbruster also makes mention of songs being sung during different seasons “…singing seemed to peak in the warm months…’they sympathize too much with Nature to sing in the winter’ “(Armbruster, pg. 12, 2007). This again brings a point to certain spots in time where songs and music can indeed be led by nature and weather patterns.

Jim Pepper was a Native American songwriter and Saxophonist who tested the boundaries of scared music and fusion, and to his surprise his music became popular with the elders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2YeEUlyhQw&list=RDS2YeEUlyhQw#t=443

The development of Seattle was conducted by Mr. Arthur Denny and brought many lumber and coal jobs to the new area. Both the Duwamish and the settlers came to the new land seeking these jobs and during this time work songs were sung. Some of the instruments used were flute, fiddle, and reed organ and were played often in the first parlors and saloons of Seattle (Armbruster, pg. 20, 2007).

Seattle was built with a foundation of music, it’s structure and culture reflects directly on the history of the music in the city. People lived their life based upon music and in the 1860′s The Seattle Brass Band was formed and gave way to a mesmerizing sound that guided the community through laborious endeavors. This sound was inspiring to more than just one group of people and introduced a new feeling to the community that pushed the forward industrially.

Earlier this week Industrial Revelation from Seattle came to Olympia’s Rhythm and Rye for the second time and performed with great virtuosity and extreme passion. All members of the band graduated college in Seattle, either at Cornish or University of Washington and have been playing together for at least 10 years, and it shows.

The synchronicity in their Jazz/Blues/Symphonic/African and Brazilian fusion music is done so naturally and organically that as an audience member and professional musician was not only inspiring and bonding but allowed room for collaboration with the audience and proper energy flow increasing entertainment value. The group dynamics between the four members are close and eye contact isn’t even needed for the refrain after ever member has showcased their skills while the other members holler and clap encouragingly for every song. The band draws most of their influence from major artists such as Chick Webb, Duke Ellington, Coltrane, etc, but more interestingly the drummer has musical roots dating back to his grandparents, some influential folks to the industry at the time in the Pacific Northwest.

http://www.industrialrevelation.com/band-biography/

Since the Rhythm and Rye has allowed me to help out with event promotion I was able to capture a few great videos of the performance, as well as stay until close and talk to Josh Rawlings the Fender Rhodes performer.

Josh was kind enough to answer some of my field study related questions such as “Does Industrial Revelation’s music change from city to city and how big of a factor is the audience during this change?” He said some venues in Seattle or other cities haven’t put off as much energy as given at the Rhythm and Rye. That the audience matters and they change small details to the songs according to the entire vibe of the venue. Some audiences don’t dance or holler which makes the energy low and show shorter than normal. But each song that night lasted around 10-13 mins because the band was feeding off the energy that the crowd was giving them.

About a month earlier Hillstomp (Portland, OR) rolled through and brought well over 200 audience members to Rhythm and Rye and gave one of their best performances. I was able to talk with Henry Christian, guitarist and thanked him for his performance and he said something to the fact that the audience is everything and how all you can do on that stage is just feed off the energy.

This leads me to a new question, does the size of Olympia compared to neighboring larger cities such as Portland, and Seattle change the appreciation of certain types of music? Has some of the larger cities taken for granted their musicians or are the cities just growing too fast that audience members can’t keep up with the music scene?

Alen de Bottoms ideas of ego loss and realizations at the end of “Art of Travel” are important elements to understand while both reading the page, safe at home cozied up with a coffee or a beer, or while out in some foreign land watching the lightning dace across the sky. “There was always more in the world than men could see, walked it they ever so slowly, they will not see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace.” (218).

We as a species need association to avoid feeling isolation, and as our worlds grown and new technologies come out the isolation between thought and sight against pace has grown more and more. Little fragments of life just pass us by and even though we can feel connected to something by just taking a quick snap shot of a groovy building or some other shit that we find intersting, and we can post it to social media it has not truly satisfied our being. We become isolated in thinking we are associating but the point that de Bottom makes is that even though we have these great things that could help us, we neglect the time to really see what it is we a looking at, “…and a man, if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being.” (218).

This to me is like Timothy Leary’s ideas of his book “The Psychedelic Experience; A Manual on the Tibetan Book of the Dead”. In the first Bardo called “The period of ego-loss” he describes “the conscience-expantion process is the reverse of the birth process, birth being the beginning of game life and the ego-loss experience being a temporary ending of game life.” (37) If we look at it not as a psychedelic trip but a physical one, the “birth process” would be like the planning of the trip, the beginning of the plane ride (ect ect). The ego-loss experience would in effect be what de Bottom states about man and his being. As well as this the ego-loss process is encourage by de Bottom through the whole book, he constantly reiterates the fact that while abroad do not fall in to “tendencies” you would have at home. Dare to see, dare to live, dare to do something different other wise your time will not be spent properly and while I am on my trip to New Orleans I will every day try to do this for my self.

Ego-loss can truly be achieved if he or she is willing to step out of them selves and just exist and be as they are at that moment, not imposing any ego games upon them sleves. It will be hard and you may or may not e able to achieve it, but through constant thought and awareness to all thats going on and not getting too fixated on bullshit things, it will come as easy as breathing or walking, one just needs a little time and patience.

The quote is from Wordsworth’s Imagination and Taste, How Impaired and Restored. He goes on to say that these “spots of time” “with distinct pre-eminence retain a renovating virtue […].” This aligns perfectly with a belief of mine that it’s the events we remember which change us including our imagination and taste. Whether this change is an impairment or an aid isn’t as easily stated. Regardless, Wordsworth’s idea is more specific than that; he speaks here of only memories with a renovating virtue.

As I sit propped up on my dorm bed (something I’ve done far too often the past six years) I question how exactly a spot of time can retain anything and if it did how could we ever access it again except in the abstraction of memory. Plenty of times (especially on a dorm bed) I’ve wished for a spot of time with renovating virtues. I’ve wished for trips to Moscow and Trinidad. I’ve wished to see people far away or long gone. I’ve wished for a spontaneous spiritual renewal and physical renovation, wrongly. Wordsworth specified renovating virtues are experienced outside of “false opinion and contentious thought, or aught of heavier or more deadly weight, in trivial occupations, and the round of ordinary intercourse”.

In Uruguay, I won’t be involved in any trivial occupations and there certainly won’t be any rounds of ordinary intercourse or any ordinary behavior for that matter. I’ll keep the web updated on any and all experiences of renovating virtues.