~*...ain't nothin sweeter...*~

randnorm thursday event in black rock city 2005

jewish shamanic journey/meditation
12:00am-1:00am
using elements of jewish shamanic and mystical practice, we'll swim the seas of our psyches out beyond the edges of brc. meet at midnight or beyond the radial street nearest the camp shortly thereafter. hosted by: black rock jcc @ amnesia and 4:30


photo by lady bee

randnorm mind grenade

machines will never be able to give the thinking process a model of thought itself since machines are not mortal. what gives humans access to the symbolic domain of value and meaning is the fact that we die. - regis dubray

randnorm pikcha

photo by james porto

normdate 4.27.6

last night's reggae night at the rez avoir was, perhaps, the best reggae night i have experienced to date here in nelson. the people in this town are amazing, and the energy created by a group of beautiful souls dancing to reggae music is infectious.


having a full band this week (last week the lead singer and keyboard player were missing) made the music complete. the open mic brought out some incredible voices to add to the vibe, including the scintilating voice of the siren goddess safire j, the reggae vibes of a random dread, and the rhymes of a local lyricist.


it was my friend tammy's last reggae night in nelson as she is moving away to victoria this weekend. have a safe journey tammy! nelson (and i) will miss you.


it was also my friend henna's last reggae night, and she's moving to, you guessed it, victoria. there seems to be this huge connektion between the kutenais and the coast (sunshine coast and the islands). after spending time in both places i can understand why...as my friend margonaut said "the veils are thinner on the coast". i've found the same to be true here in the koots.

henna is a radiant ocean temptress. i always looked forward to seeing her on wednesday nights, and i will miss dancing with her when she's gone. enjoy the coast henna. you are beautiful and strong.

last night was such a contrast to last week's reggae night. missing the lead singer and keyboard player made the music incomplete. add to that the dark vortex of energy that sucked so many people in, and you've got a wednesday that not too many people want to repeat. last night was the complete opposite. i walked up to rosemont with tammy singing aloud "cause there ain't nothing sweeter, than a hit of that home grown reefer...ah huh, ah yeah, alright." the koots roots all stars feed the vibration of the kutenai ko-kreation. respect.

after my volunteer shift today at the nelson food cupboard, i met up with jonas and anke at oso negro. the sun was shining so brightly and it was very warm, beautifully spring time warm.


the new patio at oso was finally open, giving us nelsonites more space to chill and enjoy the flavour of locally roasted java.



oso negro is to nelson what the black bull is to queen street...if you want to find someone on a warm day, you're most likely to find them here. my friend lori, the goddess who's van died in kelowna on our drive back from the coast, showed up to enjoy the sunshine and the patio of oso negro with us.


lori's little canada van is no more. the life of the van she called home for the past few years is kaput, according to the mechanic shop in kelowna. r.i.p. little canada van. thank you for bringing me safely to the coast.


the retirement of one van has given birth to a new van. my friend julia, of 324 beasley fame, showed up at oso more excited and elated than i had seen her in a long time. she had just finished her last exam of the year at the school of chinese medicine and had just insured her new vw bus. with the incredible weather, the feeling of satisfaction from completing a year at school, and a new bus, it only made sense that we celebrate at the beach.

julia's veedub bus is perhaps the most hippie bus i have ever seen, very appropriate for her and the kutenais.

when jonas isn't sitting shotgun, zwerg is julia's copilot.

goddam hippies *lol*

jonas, julia, myself, and kevin headed to redsands beach, a 7 minute drive away from downtown nelson. a little bit of a trek over the railway tracks and through some bush, we ended up in the beach clearing of redsands beach.


have i mentioned how nutz beautiful, gorgeous, and breathtaking this place is? a beach nestled at the bottom of mountains. just magnificent.


our friends ed, rhea, and pamela were already chillin on the beach by the time we arrived.

it didn't take long for our clothes to come off as we dove into the rather chilly water of lake kutenai. goddam nekkid hippies ;)




there was a fire pit made of rocks on the beach, so of course i had to take the opportunity to be a vitruvian norm. hey, when do i ever get the opportunity to be nekkid on a beach with a circle of rocks to surround me? hmm...maybe that's not a fair question ;)


jonas and i tossed around a frisbee barefoot on the beach for a bit before we all jumped into julia's hippie bus and headed back to town. swimming in april...schweet.

~*...normaste...*~

~*...goodbye frederic...*~

randnorm tuesday event in black rock city 2005

donut dropoff
1:00am-7:00am
got donuts? drop em off. we're starving! some muffins and certain cakes also accepted. welcome home! hosted by: the gate!

photo by anthony peterson

randnorm mind grenade
only when one suffers do certain truths become evident, both of the galaxy and of the self. - darth traya

randnorm pikcha


normdate 4.25.6

hooray bike! riding down rosemont hill on my newly found bicycle was such a timesaver. not having a back brake wasn't too difficult of an obstacle to overcome, i just rode the brake all the way down the hill. the gears on it are fucked too, but whatever, free bike.

today was frederic's last day in nelson. he was leaving on the 5:20pm bus to vancouver. he is heading to hong kong on thursday.

anke, jonas, and i walked frederic to the bus station. i was having a hard time walking though. my ankle is really sore from all that hiking yesterday. this is the same ankle that's been giving me problems all season since i twisted it in jasper before coming to nelson. i just tightened up my boots something fierce and rode hard all season. i guess i'm paying for it now. *ouch*


jonas, frederic, and anke were some of the first people i met at the dancing bear inn when i arrived in nelson. if you're here in the winter time its for one reason only...powder. not much more goes on in this town during the winter season.


my winter was made possible by jonas and frederic. they drove my ass to the hill more times than not, and pushed my riding limits beyond anything i thought possible.


i've gotten to know jonas and frederic really well this past winter (evident from how many blog entries i have that include them).


thanks for making my winter season the best one of my life frederic. have fun exploring the world!


it was touching watching jonas say goodbye to frederic. i could really feel how sad jonas was bidding his good friend farewell as frederic boarded the bus.


after saying goodbye to frederic, jonas, anke, and i headed to lakeside park to, you guessed it, toss a frisbee and spin some poi. hey, those are two of my favourite pass times...and it doesn't cost any money!


the sunset behind elephant mountain is simply majik from lakeside park: excellent for taking pix of swedish people if you want them to look like jesus.



i dedided to stay around town and keep jonas company. this would be his first night alone in his place without frederic. we watched eli roth's hostel, a dark and disturbing movie about a remote and unknown hostel in slovakia that no one has heard of, and no one seems to ever return from. it was pretty disgusting and very well done. i was disturbed. czech da trailer here. thank god we watched the snowboarding documentary called first descent after. just finishing an incredible season of riding powder with jonas and frederic, it was good to see the world's greatest snowboarders shred untouched and never before ridden peaks in alaska. this movie is siiiick! terje is the fukkin man!

powder is life. everything else is just details.

~*...normaste...*~

~*...pulpit rock part deux...*~

randnorm monday event in black rock city 2005

noodles, fun, and drinks
monday - sunday, 7:35pm-10:35pm
sundown noodles, fortune cookies, conentrated liquid evil and entertainment. a blade runner atmosphere in the desert. (with more of the noodles and less shooting of the replicants.) hosted by: white dragon noodle bar @ 4:30 and fetish

photo by natalia velik

randnorm mind grenade

there are two kinds of people in this world, those who try to lift you up and those who try to pull you down. both of them are trying to bring you to their level. - unknown

randnorm pikcha


normdate 4.24.6

i met anke at the soup kitchen today. after a delicious meal we headed down to jonas and frederic's place (seems like i spend a lot of time with there people eh? ;). jonas was sick as a dog, so we stole frederic and headed towards pulpit rock on the north shore. we stopped off and grabbed some beers at the liqour store, and then headed across the b.o.b. (big orange bridge). it took us just over an hour to get to the bottom of the pulpit rock path. the sun was shining brightly and it was an incredible day for a hike.

frederic was hiking in his holy soles. who'd a thunk that a pair of sandles would be so effective when hiking a mountain?


this was my second trek up to pulpit rock. the hike isn't too difficult, its not an easy one either...but the payoff is worth it. the view from 906m above sea level is breathtaking. you can see all of nelson from up there.




we drank a few beers, spun some poi, and enjoyed one of the most beautiful views that nelson has to offer. its is so amazing that our eyes, so small, can see so much beauty...and to have such an incredible vantage point to enjoy it.

the hike down took less time than the hike up (of course)...personally, i prefer coming down a mountain on my board through powder, but i ain't complainin about this warm weather.

we hitched a ride back to town from the bottom of pulpit rock. it took us about 5 minutes to find a ride. hitching in this town is so easy. we ended up at lakeside park where we tossed a frisbee and watched the sun set.


on my walk home to rosemont, i came across a bike ditched on the side of the road. it had no back brakes, but it was still rideable. not being able to ride up such a steep incline, i walked the bike home. now i've got two wheeled transportation. i wonder how sketchy its going to be going down rosemont hill with only a front brake. i'll deal with that tomorrow.

~*...normaste...*~

~*...hippie shangri-la...*~

randnorm sunday event in black rock city 2005

metaknowledge
12:00-3:00pm
our camp's last session of ambient, downtempo, and experimental electronic music this year! hosted by: camp 101 @ bi-polar and 7:30

photo by bob salpas

randnorm mind grenade

normal is something usually done. natural is how you are when you're not trying to be normal. - neale donald walsh conversing with god

normdate 4.23.6

after an incredible evening spent chilling with henna last night, i embraced a gorgeous sunny day by spinning some poi at cottonwood falls on my way home. it was there that i came across a dude named ryan (not his real name).

we chilled by the falls and smoked a bowl from his beautiful glass pipe. he had arrived in nelson a few days ago. his story blew me away.

ryan is from the states. last week he was pulled over by the cops. he had a pound and a half of marijuana in his trunk. after a police dog sniffed his car, the officer asked him to get out of the car so he could search it. after refusing to the search, ryan eventually got out of the car but strategically locked his keys in the car. the police searched him, found nothing, let him go but impounded his car. free, only temporarily, ryan packed up a backpack and a tent and hightailed it over the border...on foot! it took him three daze of trekking over the slekirk mountains of idaho before he was on canadian soil. the largest unguarded border in the world is just that, unguarded. the line between canada and america is a clear cut of trees 50 meters thick and the length of the country. all of the rumours of motion detectors and heat sensors along the border is just fear tactics.



i couldn't help but think of the rolling stone article on kid cannabis, a chubby pizza delivery boy from idaho who became a drug kingpin thanks to his insane treks across the idaho border to canada, more specifically nelson, to procure some of british columbia's largest export. the article is here, and is a great read.

Rumor had it that the town of Nelson had become a sort of hippie Shangri-La, a place where if it took you more than ten minutes to find someone to sell you a dime bag, there was a good chance you were already high.

bwahahah! no need to find a dime bag from a hippie, just go to the holy smoke and get the best nugs over the counter! of course that article didn't really go over very well with the local leaders of nelson. being known as a marijuana haven isn't necessarily the image a nice little town in the kutenais wants to be known for, or is it? here is the reaction article to the rolling stones story, also a good read.

nelson has always been known for the best weed, and ryan knew that this was the place to escape to. if you're reading this ryan, welcome to town brother. its different here in canada. all the best finding a job and place to live. its tough here, but if you stick it out you'll survive. hmm...do ya think that maybe the authourities are looking at my blog searching for people escaping marijuana prosecution from the united states?


this pik has nothing to do with my day, but its fukkin hawt. enjoy.


~*...normaste...*~