~*...infinite possibilities of consciousness...*~

gawd i love halloween weekend. its the only time of year where everyone gets into the spirit of dressing up their personality. people are encouraged to be creative, and express that creativity through dress up. man is it ever fun.

for the past few years, my friend bev has done my make up for halloween. when it comes down to painting my face, having an artist do the job has always been my first choice. and bev is a talented artist. she has done my makeup and she's even painted my hair. about 5 years ago, i had an idea for a hair style, and bev was the artist to do the job. she ended up taking a bottle of blondissma, and then painting it on my shaved head. that hairstyle was one of my favourites.

two years ago, bev painted on my face what would end up being a style of makeup that i would repeat often. inspired by bladerunner, bev painted a straight red line across my face at halloween. i'm not sure exactly what i was that year, maybe a demon, but it was fun to get dressed up. who says you have to be something for halloween? costumes imply that you are pretending to be something that you are not...but what you pretend to be you are. i outfitted my personality.

this year i decided to rework an old outfit...the secret is to accessorize. i wore a similar outfit to the one i wore to the episode 3 premiere: bondage skirt, red sleeveless top, dark dredi robe. i reinvented the old outfit with makeup, thanks to bev, and red ribbon wrapped down my right arm. inspired by a z!nk magazine photo essay on the cast of characters in cirque du soleil's ka, playing at the mgm grand in las vegas, bev and i took the design further. it took a while to finish the piece of art on my face, but it was well worth it. there's something fascinating about seeing yourself differently, whether it be a new outfit, a new haircut, or makeup on your face. what's more fascinating about makeup is that i am not really aware of the design unless i'm looking in a mirror. its like i forget that i have it on, cause its not staring me in the face. that's when other people become my mirror. how i look is given shape by what i trigger in other people, and their reactions to me remind me that "hey, my face is painted." when i get pix of how my makeup turned out from bev (and anyone who took pix that night), i'll post them on my messageboard (coming very very soon). yah, its tough not having a camera :(

my party destination was the elmocombo on spadina for the lorin bassnectar and wasabi collective jam. lorin plays a unique fusion of hip hop, broken beat, breaks, and psychelic music that he describes as psyhop, freakbeat, and bassalistik majik. whatever you want to call it, i am always impressed by the sounds he creates. i am a big hip hop fan, so hearing a freaky psychedelic perspective on the hip hop sound comforts me.

my krew for the night included my roommate jimmie, his best friend norm, and my boy patrick who came in from london. we arrived at the elmo just after midnight. lorin was playing, and the place was bumpin. lots of people out in costume, and phat beats to shake my ass to. there's something about a hip hop beat that grabs my soul and forces me to dance, and lorin delivered. by the end of the night my feet were sore from dancing so much. i love nights like this. here is the party review on tribe if you're interested.

after the party, my friend laurien and pat came back to my place to chill out. we ended up watching a movie called "what the bleep do we know". its kind of a documentary, story, visual fx fusion of a film that challenges you to rekognize and explore the endless possibilities for altering your everyday reality. imagine getting a bunch or quantum physicists together talking about reality and human consciousness. here's a synopsis from the official site:

WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?! is a new type of film. It is part documentary, part story, and part elaborate and inspiring visual effects and animations. The protagonist, Amanda, played by Marlee Matlin, finds herself in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertain world of the quantum field hidden behind what we consider to be our normal, waking reality.



She is literally plunged into a swirl of chaotic occurrences, while the characters she encounters on this odyssey reveal the deeper, hidden knowledge she doesn't even realize she has asked for. Like every hero, Amanda is thrown into crisis, questioning the fundamental premises of her life – that the reality she has believed in about how men are, how relationships with others should be, and how her emotions are affecting her work isn't reality at all!



As Amanda learns to relax into the experience, she conquers her fears, gains wisdom, and wins the keys to the great secrets of the ages, all in the most entertaining way. She is then no longer the victim of circumstances, but she is on the way to being the creative force in her life. Her life will never be the same.



The fourteen top scientists and mystics interviewed in documentary style serve as a modern day Greek Chorus. In an artful filmic dance, their ideas are woven together as a tapestry of truth. The thoughts and words of one member of the chorus blend into those of the next, adding further emphasis to the film's underlying concept of the interconnectedness of all things.

The chorus members act as hosts who live outside of the story, and from this Olympian view, comment on the actions of the characters below. They are also there to introduce the Great Questions framed by both science and religion, which divides the film into a series of acts. Through the course of the film, the distinction between science and religion becomes increasingly blurred, since we realize that, in essence, both science and religion describe the same phenomena.

The film employs animation to realize the radical knowledge that modern science has unearthed in recent years. Powerful cinematic sequences explore the inner-workings of the human brain. Quirky animation introduces us to the smallest form of consciousness in the body – the cell. Dazzling visuals reinforce the film's message in an exciting, powerful way. Done with humor, precision, and irreverence, these scenes are only part of what makes this film unique in the history of cinema, and a true box-office winner.

i saw this movie in the theater over a year ago. i really enjoyed it. it challenged me to question reality, question everything, and gave no answers to any of those questions. it presents the possibilities of quantum mechanics and turns the mystery into a fun, often hokey, ride...it was as if you were in a waking dream.

pat is in final year of his phd in genetics and laurien toured with the grateful dead for five years. it was such a rush to watch this movie with two doctors from different schools of thought: a geneticist and a healer. if you get the chance, rent this movie.

one of the most memorable parts of the movie for me was the section on the hidden messages in water as seen through the works of masaru emoto. by exposing water to various human vibrational energies and photographing the frozen water molecules using a dark field microscope, masura emoto discovered many fascinating differences in the crystalline structures. read more about the miraculous messages from water here.

the warming reminder from water was triggered in me when i saw the effect the word "thank you" had, and what it looked like frozen and captured on film. it is one of the most powerful words i have ever come across, it changes people. it makes the world a better place when people are polite to each other, especially when you are speaking to them in the language of their heart. i've learned to say "thank you" in almost 50 languages because i live here in toronto, and i have the opportunity to practice being polite in every language of the world. its the feeling of "i appreciate what you do for me" expressed in an infinite number of dialects, yet all tuning into the same energy. infinite possibilities of consciousness. its not just in some of us, it is in everyone.

if "thank you" does that to water, and we are mostly made of water, go see what it can do to people.

thank you for visiting my site. thank you for czechin out my blog. thank you for turning my world upside down and challenging me to think differently. i'm having the best time living out the answer!

namaste - i humbly bow to you honoring the light in you that is the light in me

- phenormenon \m/^_^\m/

~*...yoga and booze...*~

last night i attended a hatha yoga class just around the corner brom my home. my best friend mel was supposed to be teaching it, but when i got there i found out that she was being held up at work, and that her friend emily would be teaching the class. i was disappointed, but that wouldn't stop me from enjoying the class. it was only myself and another woman, yvette, in addition to the instructor emily.

i found the class to be an excellent way to tune into the force...yes, everything comes back to the force for me, or in hindu, prana. there are an infinite number of ways to tune into the living force, and each one is rooted in breathing. "breathe" is the most powerful word you can say to yourself. no matter how screwed up the world is around you, you are better suited to deal with it when there is oxygen going to your brain. cause hey, if you're not breathing you're dead.

i tried to attend mel's yoga class last week with my friend lori. on my way to meet her, she called and cancelled. her reason for cancelling was that she was in the hospital. her dog had bit her and cut right through her upper lip. she was at the emergency room at toronto western waiting to get stitches. seeing as i was right outside the hospital when she called, i decided to stop in and see how she was doing. she sounded like she needed a friend on the phone. when i got there, she was so happy to see me. i could see the joy in her eyes behind her tears. but man did her dog bite her good.

i stayed with lori in the emergency room, and then watched as she got four stitches in her upper lip. i think i was more qweezy than she was when the doctor put the stitches in. it only took three hours in emergency to stitch her up. i'm glad that i was there for her.

after yoga, i rode over to a little bar around the corner of my house called magpie. my friend pen is leaving for the phillipines on monday, so he was having his going away party at magpie. it was great to see so many good people out, and having blanche de chambly on tap helped too. yah, i was kinda hung over today.

i've added the first thirty pages of my very first scrapbook to my scrapbook archive. czech out the book that started it all here!

"a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle"

namaste

- something like a phenormenon

~*...becoming a dreadlock...*~

wow. these blog entries really take a long time for me to write, and because they take so long i don't update my blog that often. hell, i haven't even finished my burning man blog yet and i've been home over a month. so i'm going to try to update my blog more frequently, just not as detailed. my forum will be up soon, so you can tell me if you prefer these blog entries thick and juicy or short and sweet.

my friend genny arrived last night from wisconsin with her boyfriend jason and were staying at my place. i haven't seen genny since harvest festival last year.

it was so good to see her, and finally meet the man in her life. i met genny five years ago through the om community. its been a while since i've mentioned an om connection eh? five years ago, 11 omies, including genevieve and i, met up in vancouver and drove to bc kootenays to attend the shambalah festival. it was the beginning of many magical friendships for me.

today, i took genny and jason to kensington market. it was jason's first time in canada, so it was fun to take him to the most multicultural neighbourhood in the world. we stopped off at the roacharama and smoked a fattie at the hotbox cafe. yah, things are different up here in canada. pay your taxes, bundle up, and keep your stick on the ice eh?

we then met up with turtle and my friend lori for some happy hour dim sum at sky dragon in china town. this restaurant, at the corner of dundas and spadina on the top floor of the dragon center mall, was recommended to me by dreadmaster drew, the locktician responsible for my head of dreadlocks. it seems drew and dreadlocks would be theme for the next few daze. you'd think the dreadmaster would be an old jamaican with grey dreadlocks...but when i got my locks done on my bday last year, i was surprised to see that drew was a middle aged trini bwoy with a jerry curl.

after dim sum we headed back to my place where the process of turning genny into a dreadlock began. genny's very cute friend (also named jason) hooked up with us and was instrumental in the genny transformation. jason had recently got his dreadlocks twisted up by dreadmaster drew. they were nice, new, and short. junior dread ;) with instructions from dreadhead headquarters the two jason's and i began to transform the golden hair of miss genevieve into golden locks.

anyone who has dreadlocks knows the pain you have to go through to get your hair knotted up. backcombing your hair is a very painful process. but it is part of the transformation. you will never forget the pain you feel, or the experience. and every day that you look at your locks you are reminded that a story has been twisted up in each one.

i must give dreadmaster drew the props he deserves. he uses a special twisting/knotting method that he developed over the past 20 years of dreading hair. his locks are tight and most importantly he uses NO WAX! as we learned dreading genny's hair, backcombing alone does not make the lock tight. you need something to hold the dread together so that it locks up, thus wax. three daze later, genny's hair was finally ready to have the wax applied to it. yah, it took three days to backcomb all of her hair. at times she was in so much pain the backcombing had to stop. but in the end, daam she looked hawt. i realized why the wax was necessary to hold the lock together, and was pleasantly reminded why i chose drew to do my locks. the wax never leaves your hair, and makes your hair feel waxy.

then its time to start taking care of you hair. contrary to popular belief, dreads take a hell of a lot of work to lock up and require a lot of attention. but it is all worth it imho. welcome to the world of being a natty dread genny. i would post pikchaz, but my camera is still hosed :( so i'll leave you with an older pik of genny and i from five years ago, before we were dreadz ;)
- natty norm (=D)----

~*...emma jane...and i see old people...*~

i had brunch today at the richtree market, the former marché at bce place. my friends tiia and dan had just returned home from belgium and my friend sarah was visiting from pennsylvania with her husband gary and their 15 week old baby daughter emma jane. this year has been a year of babies for me, well, for some of my very close friends. the last time i saw sarah was in may when she was home for her baby shower. its so cute seeing small girlz pregnant...little girl, big belly, and boobs too ;)

there's no doubt that emma jane looks just like her daddy. she also seems to enjoy dreadlocks, as i soon found out...

it was really great to hang with my university krew again, which is where i first met sarah. we lived together second year with brennan, rick, jaqui, meredith, and michelle. that year i burned my room down (left a candle burning and it torched my room). aah, but that's another story. wow that year was epic. i've kept in contact with everyone from that house except for rick, who had a baby boy six years ago, and meredith. i have no idea where she has disappeared to, and neither do most of my friends. hey meredith, if you're reading this...well, it'd be because i ran into you and gave you one of my cards or you magically were brought here from some other fascinating means. if that's the case, email me. stranger things have happened.

my friend ron, also from university, was in town with an electronic psychedelic dance duo that he books for called infected mushroom. they were playing at the guvernment that night. ron showed up at the richtree for a late brunch. it was good to see him too.

later that night i helped turtle enter the dirty thirties down at the raq n waq pool hall and lounge. there was an excellent turnout of people there to show love for the one like red turtle. i'm surprised he was still standing at the end of the night. happy birthday turtle. big up youself turtle. burning man krew.

i ended up at someone's house after the raq n waq. i didn't know who he was, but was invited there by a girl. it turns out most of the people there were from newfoundland. some were living here, others were visiting. i had a great time interacting with some fascinating people who gave me an excellent window into the east coast way of seeing the world. the last guy i spoke with truly challenged me. after watching me interact with all of his friends, he believed that he had me "figured out". no, seriously...those words came out of his mouth. he was quite confident that he knew me, knew what i was about, and that whatever game i was playing on his friends that made them feel so comfortable about themselves when they were around me would not work on him. i enjoy challenges like that. they remind me that every part of my personality is given new shape with the people i interact with. it was interesting when he let me know that he thinks that i believe i am better than everyone else, just by watching me interact with his friends. i asked him if i was doing anything to make him feel uncomfortable, and he said "no, you're not bothering me." i told him i was glad i could bring out the parts of his personality that don't bother him. then i asked him if he ever heard me say that i was better than anyone else to any of his friends. when he told me no, i asked him what other signals, cues, movements, or actions did i display that made him think that i thought i was better than anyone else. cause i know, and he knows, that those words never came out of my mouth. so it must have been some other form of communication that he picked up on that triggered the part of his personality that makes him feel better than everyone else which he then projected on me. he didn't really have an answer. maybe its how i walk, how i interact with others, maybe its the confidence that i have in myself that i wear on my sleeve that triggers the "i'm better than you" part of their personality. hey, if people got a problem with me before they even get my name, i'm good with filtering them out of my life. in the end, we had a great conversation and he reminded me about the power in the word "and"...it connects.

east coast reprazent!

- the dreadlock phenormenon \m/^_^\m/

~*...mariko mori...*~

i was planning on staying in tonight, work on my site and play some video games. that was until my friend kiki sent me an email about a special guest lecturer at ryerson polytechnic university. held at the new centre for computing and engineering (right across the street from isa and darryl's place), the kodak lecture series was proud to present japanese artist mariko mori. what kind of artist is she? well, its hard to describe. from video, to photographs, to sculpture, she goes beyond categories. you've probably seen her work before, but if you haven't here are a few examples.
mirror of water, 1997-1998



entropy of love, 1997-1998

pure land, 1997-1998

burning desire. 1996-1998

here is the description of mariko mori from the kodak lecture series:

005 Venice Biennale sensation Mariko Mori speaks in Toronto as part of the Kodak Lecture Series

Toronto – The Kodak Lecture Series is pleased to announce that New York-based, Japanese artist Mariko Mori will present a talk about her work on Friday, October 7, at 7:30 pm at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Born in Tokyo in 1967, Mariko Mori is an artist, a former fashion model and student of fashion design whose category-defying work –she has been described as a cross between a geisha girl and Gidget– has catapulted her to the top of the global art scene. Her highly stylized installations, videos, and photographs synthesize a myriad of connected influences from popular culture, science fiction, and Eastern spiritual practice. Mori's personal sense of spectacle and spirituality are often clad in a consumer culture slickness which creates an artistic vision capable of eliciting both ambivalence and enchantment.

Wave-UFO, the sensation of this year's Venice Biennale, is a stunning and novel three-person immersive environment that combines real-time computer graphics and brainwave sensory technology. Shaped like an extruded teardrop, Wave UFO is a 34 x 17-foot pod in which participants recline to watch a mesmerizing, electric display of colour, sound and motion projected on the domed ceiling above. Electrodes attached to each viewer gather brainwave data, which is transformed into visual imagery in real-time and projected onto the screen. This instant biofeedback thus incorporates the experience of watching the projection as well as the interaction between the viewers themselves.

Mariko Mori was educated at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo and the Chelsea College of Art in London and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. She has had solo exhibitions and installations at Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Prada Foundation in Milan, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Deitch Projects.
she spent most of her lecture discussing wave ufo. wow, what an incredible piece of interactive art generated by the brainwaves of the three participants. i couldn't help but think to myself that a wave ufo would probably be something i would come across on the playa at burning man...if this piece of art could survive the desert. i wonder if she's ever been to burning man. the fusion of media and technologies with art, creativity, and the imagination make wave ufo almost impossible to fully describe. the software that runs the wave ufo is just as fascinating. it analyzes and visualizes brain activity and then projects it inside the ufo in real time. pure neo-tokyo art from a jedi who rekognizes that everything in the universe is one.

the free lecture was packed. i was so glad kiki sent me the email about the lecture last minute. mariko mori is a whacked out little japanese anime artist radically expressing herself. czech out these projection captures of three people's brainwaves interacting within the wave ufo.

here are a few reviews of mariko mori's work at the tokyo museum of art and in japan's metropolis magazine.

thanks kiki for the heads up. you made my friday night way more enjoyable than i had planned.

- normurai

~*...being a queen...serenity...*~

today darlene and i were treated like the queens that we are. we went to the shiatsu academy of tokyo on danforth and got a shiatsu massage. the word shiatsu means thumb and finger pressure and involves the practitioner applying pressure with their fingers or palms on a pattern of points all over the body.

because we were being treated by second year shiatsu students, the rate for an hour of shiatsu massage was only $30 (taxes included). it felt great to get a massage. i haven't had a one hour massage since, well, i've never had a one hour massage before. it was rejuvinating. and its great to be girly with darlene. she's such a great balance between tom boy and girly girl. she skateboards, snowboards, and surfs, and can spend hours in a makeup store.

last tuesday, darlene and i went and got our ears candled at pop design hairs studio and spa. neither darlene or i had ever had our earz candled, so it was a new experience for us. they didn't use regular candles, rather a hollow beeswax candle. its supposed to clean out the toxins inside of you, remove bacteria, and contribute to overall wellness. combined with some essential oils and a little face and neck massage, the experience wasn't really that rejuvinating. you could hear the candle causing a sort of vaccuum in your ear as it burned, but there was no real change in my well being after. unlike a massage where you feel relaxed after, the after effects of an ear candling was a bit harder to define...and it cost $5 more than our shiatsu massage. i'd more reccommend the massage over an ear candling. but it was dar dar and normie norm day to be queens at the spa. i wonder what we're going to do next tuesday.

i met up with some friends at the paramount theater later to see joss whedon's first feature film, serenity. based off of the short lived television series "firefly", serenity is the name of a firefly class starship. joss whedon is known for writing and producing the television series buffy and angel. his humour and whit is brilliant. my friend bev lent me first (and only) season of firefly on dvd so i could prepare for the movie. this telelvision show is brilliant. the characters are like space cowboys, hell they even talk like cowboys. the humour is pure buffy/angel style whit. the stories are well done, and interesting. what i really enjoy about whedon's view of the future is that its not all about laser blasters and futuristic vehicles. of course they are there, but that doesn't mean a good pistol or a shotgun is ever going to be thrown aside for new technology. kinda like how star wars balanced out the ways and weapons of old with the future by having blaster rifles and lightsabers.

i could go on and on about how brilliant this telelvision series is, just rent it and find out for yourself. as for serenity, it is the new star wars. fast paced, action packed, likeable and believeable characters, clever, and humour that is not catered to children. and it looks like the peeps over at rotten tomatos agree...serenity is fresh. not to mention the very attractive cast of the serenity is more than easy on the eyes *drool*

czech out the official serenity website here.

after the movie, our krew headed over to the bishop and belcher pub on queen street. this place has been a staple on the queen street strip for decades, and its home on queen west is about to come to an end. their 20yr lease is up, and management is more than tripling their rent. so in a few weeks they'll be relocating to the top of the gaybourhood at church and bloor. i have many fond memories of the bishop and belcher. it will be missed. at least i was able to order one last big belch before the pub closes :)

- normie norm (=D)----

~*...another good friday...*~

today began with beautiful sunshine coming through my window. i very rarely ever wake up beside someone, but having darlene visiting means that i get to wake up beside a beautiful soul every morning (and have someone to cuddle with at night too). its so good to have her home. and seeing as my room used to be her room, its a comfortable place for both of us to wake up in. now i've got to find someone who will take my room when i leave for bc and still have the same privileges darlene has...come back any time and have at least a sofa to stay on(if sharing the bed is out of the question).

seeing as my camera is still fubar'd, i really have no means to take pikchaz right meow. so here's a pik of darlene and i last november when she came home to visit. yes, that is a fully bloomed rose in november.

that afternoon darlene and i went skateboarding. she's got a long board and a pool board and has been missing paved roads for the past two years. i guess there aren't too many paved roads to skate on in mexico and costa rica. we headed over to trinity bellwoods park and spent the afternoon cruising around on our skates. man, its been so long since i've had someone else to go skating with. it felt good to ride again, especially on a longboard. it feels like i'm snowboarding on cement. darlene is a good skater too. she keeps on trying to convince me to join her in brazil so i can try surfing, as she (and everyone else i know who surfs) claims that it is the best feeling in the universe. i'm a big fan of snowboarding, so i can only imagine what it must be like to tune into gaia and ride her into the shore. but the west coast is calling me, and i need to ride powder. 15 years of snowboarding and never have i ridden a full run of powder. i can't wait.

that evening i met a friend at zelda's in the gaybourhood for dinner. gawd i love zelda's. its the perfect place for a first dinner with someone. the atmosphere is bright, colourful, and proud. the food is great and the staff is fabulously gay. any place where you are seated by a drag queen and can order girly cocktails with names like jackie-oh, bitch slap, and feather boa is a wonderful place for people to be themselves without fear and enjoy a fabulous meal. i didn't see zelda that night, so my memories of massaging her boobies will just have to keep me company.

after dinner, my friend and i attended the art exhibition of my very close friend bev. i've known bev since high school. she's part of my little markham krew, a group of friends from high school that i continue to share my life with. i don't have time for shitty people in my life, and my markham krew is top shelf. what makes our krew even more fascinating, at least to me, is that my brother was very good friends with bev's older sister barb, and graham's older brother brian. two generations of kids, two generations of friends.

there were lots of markham faces that i had not seen in a long time at the show, including many people who knew my brother. and it turned out that my date was friends with my friends chris and megan, part of my markham posse. yah, i learned a long time ago that me being the people person that i am makes six degrees of separation four...sometimes three ;)

bev's art exhibition was held at a restaurant called the metropolitan. it was a beautiful space, perfect to showcase her work. bev is a talented artist and has spent the last year working hard for this show. i am so happy for her. to see more of bev's work and information on purchasing an original or a print, you can czech out her site here.

darlene is also from markham, so when she showed up at the exhibition later she blew a lot of people away. hell, i didn't know she was coming home. i just answered my door the night before and there she was.

after the exhibition, my friend and i headed over to a going away party for my friend liz. she's leaving for bc in a week. wow, it seems like so many of my friends are heading out west this year, including me. the rest of the night was sort of a blur as our poison of choice was tequila. man, i don't know what it is about tequila, but it doesn't just get you drunk, it gets you high! i think its the desert that does it...very few things can survive in the desert, so what comes from plants that can survive desert conditions isn't your normal potato spirit. i guess the same can be said about the people at burning man...the desert brings out the radical in everything it touches.

my saturday was a bit hazy. aargh. tequila. i was able to get up and have lunch with my mother at the all you can eat korean grill house, but that wasn't until late afternoon so i had time to recover from an incredible friday night.

- that still working on finishing my burning man blog guy

~*...a welcome surprise...*~

tonight i was treated to a more than pleasant surprise. two years ago my friend darlene left for mexico and costa rica to surf and she handed down her room to me. my room is one of those rooms you would never see advertised, its one of those places that gets passed down from one person to another. the apartment is the second and third floor of a house with a living room, bedroom, storage room, bathroom and kitchen with laundry on the second floor, and the third floor equal in size to all of that but open with attic ceilings. my room is about 30'x30' with 15' tall ceilings. not a day goes by where i am not thankful for the place i live (or the price i pay for it).

on tuesday i was chatting with darlene on msn. she was in mexico city. i asked her when she was coming home to visit. she didn't know but asked if it would be ok if she just showed up at my door one day. i told her that my place is her place, and that the door would always be open. well, tonight the doorbell rang. my roommate asked if i was expecting someone. as i walked downstairs i was thinking to myself "i wonder if its darlene home to surprise me."....and it was.

she had her surfboard and two skateboards with her along with her suitcase. i'm so glad that she's here. its so good to have her back, to have someone to share stories about our crazy adventures, and to have a good friend to cuddle with. maybe i can convince her to come with me to bc and spend the season snowboarding. she's such a skate/snow/surf betty :)

i tried to take a pikcha of us, but my camera is officially playa'd. so here's a pik of darlene and i the last time she was in toronto visiting.


- normie \m/^_^\m/

~*...harvest festival...sept17-18...*~

let's start this entry off with the most recent happennings, harvest festival this past weekend. if there is a single one night party to attend in ontario all year, it is harvest. celebrating the autumn equinox, harvest brings the best people together for an evening of dancing and celebration. put on by alieninflux and promise, the celebration has been held at aldida farms about an hour north of toronto. two years ago, harvest changed venues to the wholearth farmstudio two hours east of toronto in hastings, ontario just north of coburg. it is a celebration of self-expression and community, and an event not to be missed.

seeing as my camera is still hosed from burning man, all of the pix i am including in this blog entry have been taken by other photographers. i will give credit to each photographer as i post the picture, however if you are the owner of the pikcha and would like for me to have it removed from my blog entry, please send me an email with your request.

my friend pat came in from london to pick my ass up in the tee dot early saturday afternoon. after packing up the car with camping gear and my mountain bike, we headed out of the big smoke around 3pm and headed east towards coburg. i love celebrating with patrick. i met him first year at university, and that guy is still there! he's finishing his final year for his phd in genetics. yah, he's a smart cookie...which is why i love partying with him. he presents such a scientist's view of thingz....he's a good balance to my dredi point of view.

we arrived in coburg and stopped to pick up booze and some food, then headed north towards hastings. my goodness, ontario sure is beautiful. autumn is just beginning and the leaves are starting to change colour. fall in ontario is simply breathtaking.

each year there is a large game of capture the flag played at harvest festival around 5:30pm. we arrived just after 5:30, so i missed the game...which is probably a good thing. last year i played capture the flag and had a blast, but after i was so tired from running (and combined with booze) that i passed out at 1:30am. i woke up at 6:30pm and began my social interaction. i was throwing a frisbee around and had so much energy people were asking me what i was on. my response was "5hours of sleep". not this year.

photograph by OTIS

we set up our camp and i got on my bike to czech out the venue. i was the only one with a bicycle this year, and i'm sure i've inspired people to bring one for next year. going from the camping area to the barn, pyramid, and party area is a pretty big trek. the bike made going back and forth so much easier. and i totally decorated my bike with flashing glow sticks and some lightning wire that i bought earlier that day. yup, you can tell i've been to burning man. hey, how else are you supposed to see me at night time? the lightning wire on my front tire only lasted so long. i lent my bike to someone, they rode it around, and brought it back with the battery pack for the lightning wire gone :(

photo by alex d

don't let my actions fool you. the shirt says so, so believe it!
photo by the watcher

the farm was set up so beautifully. such a gorgeous place to celebrate. the lighting was incredible, and it was made even more breathtaking by the extremely bright full moon. it was so bright that it created shadows! daam that sun is such a big burning ball of gas that it lights up a piece of rock so brightly that it casts shadows on us at night. and to think that our sun is small in comparison to its other cousins in our own galaxy.

photo by ektoplasm

there is something incredible about canada, and about the electronic dance community in toronto that is unmatched throughout the world. from the diversity to the freedom, it may not be perfect but no one does it better. as much as burning man was a life changing experience for me, there is nothing like dancing and celebrating with a few hundred of your friends...people who know you, who love you, who trust you. being able to be yourself without fear is a freedom so many of us take for granted. sure, i was able to radically express myself on the playa, but at least here in canada we can radically express ourselves with a joint in our hands and not be afraid of being treated like a terrorist by the authorities. there were no police at harvest, just open minded and responsible individuals celebrating together.

photograph by OTIS

i picked up these flashing glow sticks for $1.50 each in chinatown. they are about six inches long, battery operated, and have multiple light settings from solid to flashing. i brought them with me to harvest and attached them to my poi. nighttime poi without the possibility of setting myself on fire, schweet.

photo by ektoplasm

the music was as diverse as the people dancing. from techno, to psytrance, to house music, and down tempo in the morning, there was always something for everyone to enjoy. i spent most of my time in the pyramid enjoying more down tempo beats.

photos by chubbs

there was free food provided by the kind kitchen all night, including a wonderful vegan soup and corn on the cob. its like om for a night.

the light of the moon combined with a gorgeous mist created a very eerie and trippy atmosphere all night.

photo by alex d

photo by chubbs

but the highlight of the evening is always the lighting of the fire. this thing is huge! it was prefaced by some incredible fireworks. you could feel the heat emanating from the fire from far away. beautiful. it was like the burning of the man. people cheered, danced, fire spinners gracefully wielded their poi and fire staffs.

photo by chubbs

photo by alex d

it is so good to be back home. its parties like harvest that remind me how blessed we are to live in canada, and more importantly how diverse toronto is. the electronic dance community is top notch here.

we partied into the early morning, dancing together, tossing around frisbees, and enjoying all dat jah has blessed us with *puff* *puff* kudos to the alieninflux krew and promise for the best harvest yet. it may very well be my last for a while as i leave for the west coast in just over three months. thank you to everyone who made the vibe what it was. thank you to patrick for being my partner in crime. and thank you to a very special someone who continues to make me feel perfekt about myself when i am in her presence.

photo by kife

you can czech out the reviews on tribe and the om messageboard.

it seems as though i've lost a pair of poi at harvest. they are black rubber with red, white, and silver ribbon on a long silver chain. i lent them to a girl named tamara to spin with by the pyramid in the morning. i do not remember getting them back, and in my haste to leave i forgot about my poi.

i miss them. if anyone saw them, or has them, or knows someone who found them, please send me an email.
gracias

photo by the watcher

this city and this community kicks ass. i'm glad to be a part of it. i will truly miss you guys when i leave. there's nothing like riding around and having so many people yell out my name. it reminds me that they have been influenced by me as much as i have been by them, by you.

namaste
- that proud to be canadian guy