~*...smells like teen hippie spirit...*~

randnorm friday event in black rock city 2005

spiritual...but not religious
1:00-2:00pm
an overview of common concepts and their applications of the "new age" spirituality. hosted by: heebeegeebee healers @ 7:30 and ego


photo by fritz hoddick

randnorm mind grenade
some people believe so intensely in the love they experience from their version of god that they leave little space, if any, for other ways to love. - normurai

randnorm pikcha


normdate 5.5.6.

it was a beautiful day today, perfect for hanging out in the park. i dropped by the dancing bear and grabbed jonas and anke. we stopped off at home hardware to buy chain and keychain rings for the poi that i was making for the two swiss girls i met last night. holy shit the chain is expensive. $2.99 per foot and each poi is two feet long. just the chain alone for a set of poi costs $12+ tax! i've got to find less expensive chain.

we then stopped off at the local toy stoy, serendipity, to buy the knobly wobbly balls that serve as the weights on the ends of the poi. they cost $2.49 each. the last item i needed was a pair of shoelaces for the finger holds on the poi, so we headed to walmart.

i grabbed some rainbow coloured shoelaces at walmart for the finger holds, and then asked if they had any of the knobbly wobbly balls. sure enough, they did...and they only cost 97cents! two knobbly wobbly balls bought at walmart cost a total of $3 less than the local toy store. i know, boo walmart, but c'mon, who doesn't want to save money? for the price of less than two knobbly wobbly balls (i love that name) at the local toy store, i bought four of them at walmart. boo expensive local store, yay walmart!

on the short walk to lakeside park from walmart, i ran into a guy who was kind of a big deal;)

jawesome!

while jonas and anke tossed around the frisbee, i sat at a picnic table by the lake and combined all of the pieces i had acquired that afternoon into two beautiful sets of poi. hmm..these are looking pretty nice. a guy named sam, who i met wednesday night at reggae, kept me company. he's leaving tomorrow for the summer to plant trees. he shared with me some lifted spirits (mmm...lube) and some of his art. there are so mahy talented artists in this town.

i had bought two different weights of chain for the poi as one of the swiss girls requested the thicker gold chain for her poi. it was fun spinning with both the thick gold chain and the thinner silver chain. its still poi, but the thinner chain made the poi feel lighter and spin faster. the thick chain gave a heavier feel to them, a feeling that jonas liked more than the thinner, faster, silver chain. hey, these can only get better the more i make em...and listen to the people who are spinning them. and the rainbow shoelaces were a perfect way to connect the fingerholds to the knobbly wobbly balls with colour.

anke was making us dinner back at the hostel, so we headed back to the dancing bear just before the sun went down...but not before stopping in at the toy store and returning the overpriced knobbly wobbly balls. yay walmart!


on our walk back i ran into my friend dana and his daughter chloe. dana was the instructor for my casi level 1 certification that i took in february. it was good to see him in wamer weather.


i had an incredible telephone conversation with erin (i love you erin, so much!) before indulging in an incredible meal of butternut squash soup and chicken ceasar salad. thank you so much anke.


then i made little cards, almost like labels, for the poi. each one was personalized with their name (natalie and keim), and had a url for the home of poi so they could learn moves online and of course my website.


natalie and keim returned to find us, and their poi, waiting for them in the front foyer of the dancing bear. they were so excited and happy with their poi, which made me feel really good. the personalized cards went over well too.

cost of materials for each set of poi: $16
selling price: $20
the joi of spinning poi: \m/^_^\m/

betcha thought i was gonna say priceless eh?

after a few games of cards, and a game of chess, i headed over to the movement center with anke, jody, and natalie for an spca fundraiser and dance. this family friendly event began at 6pm and went until midnight. we got there around 10:30.

the movement center is a yoga space on baker street. its a beautiful space with hardwood floors and mirrors covering the walls. there were about 60 people there dancing away to some amazing tribal house and breakbeatz provided by juno award nominee and kutenai resident adam shaikh.


the people were beautiful, but holy shit dude, the place smelled like hippie. now i'm all for pese, love, gaia, and living in harmony with the environment, but c'mon man, personal hygeine is important! taking showers and using deodorant helps eliminate that pungent funk that hippies are known for. i guess it comes with the territory: nelson is the hippie shangri-la of canada. goddam hippies!!!


i'm a broadband hippie. i need high speed internet. i shower. i use deodorant. that doesn't make me any better or worse than other hippies, it just makes me smell nicer...cause really, who wants to be around the stinky guy?

~*...normaste...*~

~*...hot white feather...*~

randnorm thursday event in black rock city 2005

better red than dead
1:00am-5:00am
want a little fire, scarecrow? nancy adds temporary red colour to your hair. clean hair preferred. blonde, or previously lightened hair will always absorb best. hosted by: nancy's army of red headz

photo by brian frazier

randnorm mind grenade
knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon. - han fei tzu

randnorm pikcha


normdate 5.4.6

last night, jonas picked me up in anke's new car (jonas' old car) and we headed down to the lakeside beach to watch the sun set and spin some poi. jonas is gettin much better at spinning poi as he learns to relax more, to breathe, to flow. poi is such zen, its tuning into the force, and dancing with it.

it makes me happy to know that i've gotten jonas and anke also addikted to spinning poi. the excitement on their faces as they become comfortable with new movements is awesome. movement is a language, and some have a wider vocabulary than others.


i'm lovin the staff too. spinning staff is such an ancient art of movement and flow. i tried attaching the glowing light sticks to the staff to see what it would look like at night...the results were quite kewl.



i also had my flashflight disc with me, so the darkness was not an obstacle for us enjoying our favourite beach pass times.


we headed back to the dancing bear to grab anke after she finished her work shift. it was reggae night, so there is only one place to be in all of canada on a wednesday...the rez avoir. jonas was super tired, so he decided to stay in, but not before he randomly gifted me a sacred wooden bead necklace he received at a vipassna retreat. no one else is allowed to touch this necklace besides its owner. jonas gifted it to me, but placed it into my old poi bag for safe keeping until i reach my vipassna retreat this summer. then i can touch the necklace, and it will then belong to me. thank you jonas. you will be there with me when i begin the life changing journey into my inner universe of s'elf.

reggae night at the rez. what can i say? this night is the best weekly club night i have ever experienced. solid reggae riddims played by a live band right there on the dance floor, and nothin but the best lovers of reggae to dance with. who could ask for anything more?

i heard someone call a dread (who is often aggressive and tough to be around) an impostafari last night. ooh, that's a mean one...but i have to admit the name does suit him at times.

it was henna's last night (just like last week wednesday) for real last night. daam this girl is foine! dancin with her to solid reggae music was a perfekt way for me to celebrate her last night here in town. enjoy the coast henna.

today i volunteered at the food cupboard. near the end of my shift, the hippie i came across at crystal creek a few weeks ago came in. i rekognized him and said "hello hot white feather". i told him how i had shared the knowledge of the hopi shaman greeting with many others, and thanked him for sharing it with me that day on the mountain.

that began a gaialogue between us that expanded our collective consciousness, increased our awareness, and put smiles of understanding on our faces. he shared with me how the name hot white feather was given to him, and i shared with him my mantras on life.


do good whenever it is in your power to do good. if you can't do good, at least do no harm.

it was incredible to fellowship with an elder of such power and wisdom. hot white feather is full on hippie, and has been for decades. from stories about meeting bob marley at a concert in 1971 to chewing on roots the expand awareness, hot white feather shared his wisdom with me, and i shared my wisdom with him. to be able to satsang with an elder like hot white feather was an honour.

every man do his ting a likkle way diffrent.

i asked him how he described our meeting at crystal creek to others. who is norm to you hot white feather?
he described me as a cosmik kat who could see auras, and our meeting was a connektion of wisdom and awareness.

blessings to you hot white feather. thank you for opening my eyes to new fnorms. i am honoured to have made your world larger, lovlier, and more mysterious too.

basking in the afterglow of fellowship with the wise, i headed to oso negro to enjoy the sunshine and their newly opened patio. yes, oso on a beautiful day is the place to be here in nelson. i ran into so many people, so many goddesses with their children, so many smiling faces...and some not so smiley.


i left oso just after 4pm and headed towards the dancing bear to see anke. on my way there i met a guy named terry. he had everything he owned currently on his back, which left his hands free to hold the joint he was carrying. he asked if i smoked weed to which i replied "more than a little bit". i just love that we can smoke anywhere we want in nelson, and you can buy weed over the counter. this place is an anormaly.

i stopped in to say hi to anke before terry and i headed to cottonwood falls to chill and, you guessed it, spin some poi.


terry had just gotten out of jail and was hitching back home to calgary. wow, i meet the most interesting people and seem to create a safe environment that encourages people to be themselves around me. from hippie elders to released criminals, there is light in everyone.


i sent terry to the hitching spot, and assured him that finding a ride to calgary would be easy. if there ever was a place where hitching a ride was as easy as buying weed in a store, its here. nelson is normtopia. oh yah, don't tell anyone ;)

i went back to the dancing bear inn to grab my bike. there i met two swiss girls, keim and natalie. anke asked me to show them how i spin poi. i brought them back to cottonwood falls and shared with them my passion for spinning. then i got them to try it out, and wouldn't ya know it, they loved it. they loved it so much that they gave me money and tomorrow i'm going to make them their own poi so they can spin whenever they want. maybe i should start making poi and selling them...hmmm.


speaking of which my friend bethany is moving to nelson next week. she is a goddess from toronto that it also a brilliant poi spinner. i can't wait to see her, share with her what new knowledge i have with poi, and learn from her. she's also bringing me a set of fire poi. i can't wait to have my own fire poi.



as i walked my bike through the junction on my way to rosemont hill, the universe conspired to remind me how powerful and mysterious it is. i found a white feather on the path i was walking on. of course i did.


it fits perfektly on the end of my staff. my staff has new energy flowing through it, charged up with the wisdom of a hot white feather.

goddam hippies ;)

may the 4th be with you. *smacks myself in the face for being punny*

~*...normaste...*~

~*...in gratitude of water...*~

randnorm monday event in black rock city 2005

fire spinning/drum circle
monday - friday
9:00pm-12:00am
bring your fire toys and/or glowy things and show your stuff. we will have music, drums, and safety gear. nightly beginning one hour after the sun sets until we drop. hosted by: the fire station (shangri-la village) @ 7:30 and fetish


randnorm mind grenade
a man who has risked his life knows that careers are worthless, and a man who will not risk his career has a worthless life - han fei-tzu

randnorm pikcha


normdate 5.1.6

i headed over to julia's place yesterday afternoon to help her move out of 324 beasley street. i have such fond memories of that place. it was my home during february, a home full of beautiful people who opened up their lives and space to me when i needed it most. it was good to be back there, and to help julia in any way i could.


i packed up julia's hippie van, washed her dishes, and enjoyed the company and warmth of 324 beasley that had made me feel so comfortable when i moved here.


for once, everyone who lived at the home was actually there, so i seized the opportunity to get a pikcha of everyone in their yard...including the new addition to the home, andrea and akkal's baby boy abilash.


no drug, no high, no experience, can even come close to what its like to hold your child for the first time...and it looks like it only gets better.


i took over from zwerg and claimed co-pilot shotgun position in julia's packed hippie van. man, it don't get more hippie than this.


we grabbed henna before beginning our journey to winlaw for their beltaine festival and the gratitude for water celebrations.


winlaw is about an hour drive down the valley from nelson. a small town with a population of 400, winlaw is a nestled on the east bank of the slocan river. the energy there is majik, and you can see it, taste it, in the water. in gratitude for the water of winlaw, and to preserve the winlaw watershed, the town got together to celebrate water.


the town sent a sample of their water to japan to be analyzed and photographed by the emoto corporation. authour of the book "the hidden messages in water", masaru emoto is known for creating tangible images of thought through water. the resulting winlaw watershed water crystal was unveiled at the celebration. sorry, i have no pik of the crystal to share...yet.


the town had set up a stage outside of the cedar creek cafe where local musicians tuned into the rhythm of life and provided the music in celebration of water.

there was over a hundred people enjoying the sunshine, the music, and the celebrations. it was so good to dance outside, especially with children dancing with you. so many beautiful mothers with their babies were dancing and celebrating too. there were people dressed up for the occassion, from young children to old children.



henna and i headed down to the beach which was about a 10minute walk from the celebrations. we stopped at the bridge to chill out. there we came across a massive pile of quartz washed up on the shore of the river. i'm not talking a few pieces, it was like a mine of quartz. hundreds of pieces ranging in size from small to huge boulders! that is how majik the kutenais are, and the water in winlaw. its so majik that massive boulders of quartz crystals wash up on the shores of the river. crystal creek in nelson is beautiful, but the crystals in winlaw blew me away. they are much lighter in colour, white as opposed to the yellow colour of the quartz normally found in nelson.



henna brought some cider and guiness so that we could make black velvets *mmmm*


we used the river to keep the guiness and cider cold.


the sun was setting, so we decided to chase whatever sunlight we had left on our journey back to the cedar creek cafe.


we could hear the bass of the stage as we approached the cafe. the celebrations there were going full tilt. its such a different vibe when you can dance outside with your family instead of being inside at a club.

as i grabbed some more supplies (read booze) from julia's van, two women working at sleep is for sissies called out to me as i walked by...thing is they weren't calling "norm" they were saying "nature". yes, this isn't the first time i've been mistaken for my boy nature, however that normally happens to me at whitewater when i've got a helmet and goggles on. i can see the resemblance.


this dude's tattoo must have hurt. *ouch*


the koots roots all stars began their set at 7pm. it was pure reggae night, except we weren't at the rez avoir, we were outside. man that was fun. it doesn't get any more rad than this.

there is also nothing more beautiful than a goddess feeding her baby while dancing to reggae music. so simple. so natural. no nurturing. so radiant. feeding the vibrations of our future's collective creation.

a young boy, about 8yrs old, approached me and said that he had seen me spinning staff at lakeside park in nelson. i'm still learning to spin staff, but i am already addicted. i told him i'd share with him my limited knowledge of spinning staff if he could find us two staffs. he returned and handed me a beautiful wood staff. the staff was the perfect length and width for me, and all of the bark had been taken off by a beaver! you could see all of the teeth marks down the staff and on the tips. custom made for a normurai by a beaver in the valley. schweet.

i shared what knowledge i had of spinning staff with this young boy, then danced to the rest of the koots roots set with my new staff. i felt like king lou from the dream warriors with my staff. yes, i used to idolize the dream warriors and even had my own sugar cane staff.


later, a man named peter came up to me and said "so that's where the staff ended up." turns out he was the one who had found the staff just down the river from the cafe. he said i could keep the staff as he had also found 4 more pieces that he left leaning up against a tree a 15minute walk away. thank you peter for this staff. it will travel with me to many exciting places. hooray random gifting!

the music finished around midnight, but there was still a fire outside of the cedar creek cafe and hippies banging on drums. henna and i, a bit drunk from our evening of celebration, got a ride back into town with a nelsonite named davin. too tired to walk up rosemont hill, i passed out at henna's place and woke up to this beautiful view outside the window.


it was not however as warm as it was yesterday. it was actually quite cold today, and overcast. i headed to the food cupboard for a volunteer shift. anke is also volunteering at the cupboard and today's shift was split between the two of us.

this is shanti. her mother is caucasian, her father is black and from jamaica. and here i thought that the black gene is dominant...she is the most light skinned mulato i have ever come across, and cute as a button! eek!

after my shift, i headed to the soup kitchen. on my way there, i got a telephone call from my friend greg in ottawa. greg had come to visit me here in nelson in march and we shredded some awesome powder together. he had called me to thank me for some words of wisdom that i had shared on my blog...more specifically my story about a guy who approached me at fluid last week telling me that he had seen me at faeries and fools, but that i was too bright to approach because of the light sticks i had on my arms. i had told this guy that he had done me a favour by judging me based on how bright i was, and thanked him. i have no time for people like that in my life, people who will judge me and punish me before they even know my name. greg shared with me a story of how my words helped him give shape to an experience he had in ottawa this past weekend, and how some people can be so judgmental and close minded, even hippies. greg told me that my words and my life have influence on people, whether or not i believe it. i believe it greg. you have influenced my life as much as i seem to have influenced yours. don't waste time with shitty people! blessings to you greg. thank you for that phone call. it brightened my day.

i ran into my friend jim at the kitchen. he had with him two padded swords that he borrowed from his friend nathan. every sunday, a group of people (young and old) gather in gyro park and battle with swords and axes...padded ones of course. i had always wanted to join them, but yesterday i helped julia move instead. so jim and i headed back to his place to sword fight. man was it ever fun learning how to wield a sword and fight. it is an extension of yourself. who'd a thunk that larping would be so much fun?

holy shit i'm such a nerd...and a hippie!

jim's partner fiorinda came home and showed me some of the pieces she's been sewing. jim and fiorinda are expecting their first child any day now. i showed her my asian bag that i carry my poi in and asked for her suggestions on repairing it (it has been well loved). she made a few suggestions, and then randomly gifted me a new red bag that she had sewn to replace my torn and loved old bag. another random gift. thank you fiorinda. i will love this bag. blessings to you.

i headed home to wash off my hippie stink. what an incredible 24hrs. actually, what an incredible world we live in, and i come across the most fascinating people...and this is just what i record in my blog. the best parts of my life are the parts that i don't record, because in my haste to capture a moment it takes away from the best part...being 100% in the now.



but wait, my day isn't over yet! after a shower, some dinner, and a little blogging, i headed down to see anke and jonas at the dancing bear inn. jonas had moved out of his place and will be spending his last few weeks at the dancing bear. anke lives and works there. we grabbed some beers and put together their poi (they got chain from the hardware store). i put the flashing lights on the ends of my staff to see what they looked like, and i was quite impressed. yay night time spinning without setting myself on fire!

anke and i headed to cottonwood falls to try out her newly completed poi. i was supposed to meet up with henna and mckayla there too, but they didn't show up...or maybe they did and i was just late. either way, anke and i drank some beers and enjoyed spinning poi and staff by the falls. then anke drove me home in her new car...yup, she bought jonas' car from him and is enjoying the freedom of mobility. personally, i'm just happy to not have to walk up rosemont hill ;)

i'm addikted to spinning poi and staff...and the joyz are contagious. now i've got both jonas and anke hooked. schweet.

p.s. been listening to the german reggae group seeed non stop since ali burned me dubby conqueror on saturday. these guys fukkin rool! reggae riddimz in another language have been keeping me company as i have been adding this blog entry. psychedelic kingdom come...

ok, blog entry is done...for real this time ;)

~*...normaste...*~