Monday, November 27, 2006

~*...novembrrrr love...*~

randnorm monday event in black rock city 2006

big band and swing day!

toss on your top hat and spats! it's big band & swing day at iron rose. duke ellington, the dorsey brothers, count basie...swing on over! all big ban swing, all day...unless we decide to play something else for a while. hosted by: iron rose @ anxious and 4:30


photo of the conexus cathedral by bill kositzky

randnorm mind grenade
love all, trust a few. do wrong to none. - william shakespeare

randnorm pikcha



randnorm video


david benedek from the best snowboarding dvd evar...lame by robot food.

normdate 27.11.6

i woke up this morning in my snowpants and bootliners. i was so exhausted when i arrived home yesterday after snowboarding, i made myself something to eat and then passed out. that was at 5pm yesterday. needless to say, it has been a pretty exhausting weekend...and so worth it!


preppin to ride with some cads peeps

on friday night, we had our first on hill training for cads (canadian association for disabled skiing) and c.o.p. (canada olympic park). the weather was around -20 degrees before the windchill. holy fuck this city is cold.



despite the cold, i was stoked to be out riding. friday was the first time i buckled into my board to make turns since may when anke and i hiked up whitewater. it took no time at all for the floodgates of anticipation and excitement to open up as i lost myself in the serenity and joys of making turns on my snowboard. it is zen for me, yoga at 50km/h! you are tuned into every muscle in your body, including the ones you didn't know existed, in order to maintain balance.



everything is about balance, and when your balance is constantly questioned (like when you're riding), you are forced to be aware and in tune with your body, or else you eat it...and eating it at high speeds is painful.

other than a short lesson on teaching snowboarding from one of the c.o.p. instructors, friday night was pretty much an evening of open ended riding. the lesson was just a refresh of my casi 1 instructors course that i took at whitewater last season. not everyone who has volunteered for cads has taken an instructor's course, so the lesson was new for most.

canada olympic park reminded me of ontario...night riding, man made snow, hard packed groomed runs, and spots of ice. there were only three runs open, each of which were longer than 90% of all the runs in ontario...but only by a little bit.

the cold might have been intense, but nothing zero exposed skin and some layers couldn't fix. overall, it was awesome to make turns this early in the season.



i was at the hill bright and early saturday morning. the weather was a brisk -24 before the windchill *brrrr*



we were separated into groups of 10, and began our cads training for each discipline. i was part of group 1 (we're number 1!), and our training for the day would include 3-track, 4-track, and blind.

3-track skiing is the name for skiiers that are missing a single limb. they use outriggers attached to each of their arms, and a single ski, creating three tracks on the snow...3-track.



3-track snowboarding is a bit more challenging though. you need the balance of both limbs to snowboard. we tried keeping only one foot buckled in, using the outriggers for balance, but it was very difficult to control the board with only one foot. we tried buckling in one of the outriggers into the back binding, which was an improvement, but it still was too difficult to link turns with only one limb.



the most difficult thing about 3-track snowboarding is getting up. its already difficult to get up off the snow when you've got both limbs, but trying to do it when you only have the use of one limb and two outriggers is next to impossible. there's a reason its called 3-track skiing not 3-track snowboarding.



the next discipline we were taught was 4-track. 4-track skiiers have both limbs, however they do not have the ability to use those limbs 100% as perhaps and you and i can. people with cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis make up the lion's share of 4-trackers.



it was definitely a lot easier to use the outriggers with a snowboard when both feet buckled into the board. what impressed me the most was one of our instructors, andy, who had cerebral palsy. walking across the cafeteria was an exhausting ordeal for andy due to his disability, but slap a pair of skiis on him and a pair of outriggers and he was blasting past even the best of us on the hill. watching him rip it on the hill was inspiring. i understood what they meant by differently abled instead of disabled. andy may not be able to do some of the things people with full use of their limbs might be able to do, but he is able to do other things...and he skiis very well.

there aren't any snowboarding students in 3-track or 4-track, so us riders just experimented with what ifs using outriggers.



its fun riding next to the ski jumps that were used for the 1988 winter olympics at canada olympic park. there is a wonderful energy here at c.o.p. it was a place where the world came together, peacefully, to compete and freeze their asses off together.




1988 was also the year that jamaican bobsled team made its debut in the winter olympics.



since the jamaicans led the way in 1988, other tropical countries, such as mexico, trinidad and tobago, netherlands antilles and brazil have also formed their own bobsled teams.

the 1993 disney movie cool runnings was also filmed here at c.o.p. looking up at the jamaican flag, i felt an overwhelming sense of pride to be canadian with jamaican roots freezing my ass off in this ridonculously cold ass country. if its this cold in november, i can only imagine what january and february are going to be like.



quite a contrast to the temperature of the islands this calgary place is.



our final discipline for the day was the blind group, or as they prefer to be called the visually impaired. most of the visually impaired do have some sight. to give us a better understanding of what its like to be blind, we were asked to put on goggles with the lenses covered in duct tape and then led around by a partner.

it really is such a different and often scary experience to not have use of the one sense that we normally rely on to give shape the world around us. seeing is not believing.

our instructor shared with us one of the largest challenges when teaching the blind...confidence in your voice. a visually impaired person relies on all of the other senses to give shape to the world around them, and if you are nervous or scared, your student will hear it in your voice and that energy will transfer to them.

we did some more excercises outdoors withe blind goggles on, including buckling into our boards with the help of a seeing partner. you may be asking why the blind would even want to leanr how to ski or snowboard. when i heard the answer, it made sense to me. they do it to feel the wind against their face. in this city, one doesn't really have to be on the ski hill to experience that ;)

i spent the rest of the afternoon riding the hard packed snow of c.o.p. there was a small terrain park at the bottom of the hill with a few jumps, a fun box, and a rainbow. i was glad that i could ride a run and then dash into the terrain park at the end for a single jump.

after an awesome and cold day of learning and riding at c.o.p., i braved the treacherous frozen roads of calgary back to the northwest in kristin's little toyota echo hatchback. this thing is small, slides easily, but is great on gas. thank you kristin for letting me use your micromachine to cruise around the city. i appreciate it, and you.



kristin and i had dinner at daemond's newly renovated apartment in downtown calgary. of course the topic of conversation revolved mostly around burning man. i quoted my friend dawn...

it seems like all burners do is talk about burning man.

ha! its so true. the burn becomes the high water mark for everything creative and fascinating that burners see anywhere for the rest of our lives.

the burn exists beyond your imagination, or perhaps within the limits of your imagination that you didn't think was possible until you set foot on the playa.


photo by scott london

kristin and daemond...or their playa names kale and dazed


i decided to try out a white line of makeup across my eyes instead of my usual red. the result was very super hero like.





fukkin rights!


kevin, kristin, dae


lookin good girl


with our bellies full (thanks for dinner dae), we once again braved the intense deep freeze of calgary on our way to the royal canadian legion to hear one of my favourite djs, lorin bassnectar.



novembrrrrr



my boys tyson and ari from music first were the ones responsible for puttin on this incredible event...and bringing into town one of the west's most loved djs, lorin bassnectar.

there is something about lorin, at least here in the west, that brings people out from under rocks, out of hibernation, and onto the dancefloor losing their shit. i witnessed it first hand in june at the warehouse here in calgary (another solid music first event), and at shambhala. lorin is more than loved over here, he is worshipped...and rightfully so. this guy kicks fukkin ass! i'm upset that i missed him play at the burn, but i was about to make up for it here in calgary.


bassnectar promo video 2003

the venue was the old legion in downtown calgary. waiting outside to get in was a bit fukkin cold. holy shit this town is freezing. inside, the twp level space was large and well decorated. maad props to tyson and ari for organizing such a tight and solid event. your attention to detail is rekognized and appreciated.



our friend phat pat of broken english was playing when we arrived, droppin some ill drum and bass and hard bangin' jungle.

nice shirt, dorktron ;)

it didn't take long for the venue to fill up with bassnectarheads anxiously awaiting lorin to arrive and throw down. dj mama michie took the decks after phat pat and primed the crowd with some bumpy funky breakbeatz.

i met quite a few calgary shambhalites from the shambhala messageboard. it was good to put names to faces. big ups to frankydubs, winditup, synthetics, tricky nicky, and eagleye153.





it was good to run into some other familiar calgary faces too...




even the unfamiliar faces were easy on the eyes. there are some good lookin peeps in this town.



i ran into a friend who told me that lorin had something for me and was looking for me. finding him wasn't hard...just look for the swarms of peeps followin' him around.



my friend dani had seen lorin play in toronto the night before. she gave lorin a present to give to me in calgary. the gift was a ring that said 'love' on it. it made my night. i got love sent to me from the east delivered by lorin bassnectar. thank you so much dani. i love you and miss you girl. thanks for reminding me that i am loved and missed. you fukkin rool! thank for bein the messenger lorin.



a week ago, dani and my toronto burner family (i fukkin miss you guys something fierce) hosted the toronto deplayafied party (the unnoficial burning man decomp). it was held at the center of gravity. dani created a playa bike art installation. you get on the bikes, and ride through the playa projected on a sceen in front of you complete with sounds. she had asked me to record my thoughts on the burn, and playa bikes, and send them to her so she could incorporate my voice in with the playa bike experience. i asked her if she used the sound clips and she responded:

babe! you were totally in the video.. I used all clips, and loved when people looked at me all wide-eyed, asking "IS THAT NORM!?" - you were totally there Babe, I'm glad you were a part of our decomp.

more pix of the unofficial decomp by alex d

by the time lorin took the decks, the place was packed and ready to explode. lorin brought it hard, slammin some raw and dirty psychodelectro breakbeatz sprinkled with hip hop and a healthy dash of fuck you! the floor was bumpin' with people losing their shit, myself included.



lorin assaulted my senses with sick, dark, raw, and gritty low frequency beatz.



the energy of the crowd was nutz! it reminded me of the czech head movement of the mid nineties rave scene. czech was the only dj playing breaks and trip hop, so those of us who loved breaks followed czech wherever he played. we were czech heads, and we were a breakbeat family. we would lose our shit to the sweet sound of breakz served up by the vancouver hip hop, breakz, and scratch guru known as czech.


czech and kenny glasgow in the bassment of 602 waterloo, london, 1997


czech at connekted, toronto, april 2k5

lorin dropped bomb after bomb, and the crowd exploded in a frenzy of ass shakin', loud screams, and hands in the air.



i was right up in front of the stage dancin' my ass off and takin pix. its inspiring to see a dj get right into it, and require space behind the decks for him to dance too! at one point, lorin grabbed my camera and took a pik of the crowd from his point of view.



he also made sure to grab the mic and show love for the hundreds of nectarheadz who braved the sub zero calgary temperatures to come out and support him.



if i didn't have to use the bathroom, i would've stayed at the front of the stage dancing for lorin's entire set. i can't remember the last time a dj took complete control of my senses and body with his beats causing me to dance without abandon for their entire set, especially without the aid of any drugs (i was dd).




that was one of the best sets i had heard lorin spin. he is up there as one of my fav djs who has yet to disappoint me. big ups to tyson and ari at music first for constantly putting together first class events. thanks for the link ups tyson. maad props to pk for the dope ass sound system. bless ups to lorin for killin it! much love to you dani for the ring...and finally, huge respect to calgary for comin' out and makin this night so magical.

this town knows how to get down...just add bassnectar.



more pix here in my pikcha archive

the party ended at regular bar hours, which was good for me seeing as i had to be up and on the hill snowboarding by 9am. after a friday night of riding, a full saturday on the hill, and an evening of non stop ass shakin', i was pretty fukkin tired. i was in bed by 4:20am, and was awake less than four hours later.

have i mentioned how fukkin kold this city is? the temperature at canada olympic park sunday morning was -29 degress before the windchill, -41 degrees with the windchill. it was so cold that they closed the lifts because it was too cold and dangerous to be out there riding. so we did our final cads training indoors while we waited for the lifts to open.



the first discipline we learned about was the developmentally delayed, or dd for short. this is the largest group in cads and consists of many autistic children, including kristin's younger brother's liam and mikhail. the lesson was less about technique and more about dealing with the disability. this province is the best place in the country to raise your autistic child thanks to all of the programs available for families with autistic children. i made a request for liam to be my student, but he was on a waiting list (registration fills up fast). hopefully that will change by the time i get assigned my student on thursday.



despite the lifts not being open yet, during our 30 minute break i hiked up the small terrain park and made a few hits. i don't need no stinkin chair lift ;)

the next discipline we learned about was sit ski. sit ski allows those who have no use of their lower limbs the ability to enjoy skiing.






once again, i was reminded that the disabled are just differently abled. just because a person can't walk doesn't mean that they cannot ski.



the final discipline we learned was the proper use of equipment. from straps, poles, walk-skis, and ski bras, there is a rainbow of different pieces of equipment used to help the disabled shred the mountain.




by the time our final lesson was completed, one of the chair lifts had opened. with zero exposed skin showing, i buckled into my board and headed to the top of c.o.p. for some very cold runs.




three runs were the max you could do in this nutz cold before being forced to head inside and warm up. cads had a little area in the lounge reserved for us with some small finger foods and cofee/hot chocolate. that definitely warmed me up, and put a bit of food in my belly.



fun in the mini terrain park


we have one more on hill training session this thursday when we also find out the name of the student we willb e paired up with. our first class is on friday. i'm so excited.



after a few more very cold runs, my body was too exhausted to go any more, so i called it a day...more like called it a weekend.



i made myself something quick to eat before passing out in my snowsuit and boot liners. what an awesome weekend. i got to ride three days in a row and got to boogy down to lorin with some lively calgarians. this town is a whole lot of alright.

love and blessings

~*...normaste...*~

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to hearing about the bassnectar partee. Sorry to have missed it but 'other' things called...
soon
Kane