Innocence Lost

     It happened when I was 20 years old. I spent many a late night listening to music and surfing the web, taking frequent breaks to my parents garage to smoke the peace pipe and converse with my dog. Upon returning from one of these breaks I sat back down to my desk to a high resolution image of a massive and detailed hypnotizing nebula. I had found it on a forum, and the person who posted it urges the audience to enlarge the picture and study it corner to corner to truly appreciate its beauty. Sounded like a good idea to me so I proceeded. It was spectacular in all of its otherworldly magic, and I soaked it all in. A tingle creeps up my spine and I can feel my heart smiling. I notice swirling phosphenes appearing in the image and disregard them as sides effects of THC. With a quickness I realize I'm wrong. The twinkling changes to the clouds of the nebulae actually, physically, beginning to transform.  And, I remember it as if it just happened, a clear image of a panda bear is formed in the center of the image.  Crazy. And just as soon as the bear materialized it changed into the torso of a deer, great spiraling antlers, and now more animals are surrounding. Within minutes I had the feeling I've seen hundreds of animals, if not all in existence. The visuals begin to fade and now more clearly than anything taking up about a third of the entire image, a human skull I look away, afraid of what might come next (foolishly.) I peer back and in my trance of amazement am gifted with a beautiful token of information I have never forgotten. Information given to me without words or sound, immediate understanding I can try to portray to you now. The swirling material coloring the nebula, that is the life force we are all made off.  Star stuffs, celestial stew, the makings of life. It is all the same spool of thread we are all woven from. There is something to be learned from every person, every plant, every animal, every sacred place, and every formation in the universe.  The order of the chaotic universe teaches us with collective intelligence reflected back to us through the things we view as separate from our personal being. And what a wonderful system karma has provided.  Sometimes I revisit the nebula, and although the animals have faded (but not the memory) the human skull remains.

Friend Of Phosphene

KRIS KIDD 

     I had the opportunity to meet Kris last year when Nicole Anne Robbins came over to my apartment to do a photoshoot.  I was only providing the location, not shooting or really doing anything myself.  Kris was the first person to arrive I believe, he politely shook my hand and we got to talking.  I think within the first thirty seconds of talking to him we had both revealed incredibly dark pieces of our psyches and wound up in an empathetic embrace.  How awful.  As it would turn out, Kris has smartly designed a web personality for himself as a way to exercise the dark creative energy within him.  In person you will find him to be open, loving, understanding and non-judgmental- ready to be your friend with few questions asked.  I find that absolutely beautiful about him, however he is a fantastic artist in his own right: painting, sketching, photographing, writing, a combination of all or few.  This person is inspiring and wonderfully dynamic, you should keep an eye on him. 

Help Us Neil deGrasse Tyson, You're Our Only Hope....

     

     In a time when current Republican candidates are unsure of modern biology and the way women's bodies work,  in a time when people deny the existence of dinosaurs, in a time when we pretend all men are created equal except for when God is involved- with marriage, we perpetuate blind faith and let our fairy-tales tear apart civilizations in the name of non-sense, there are but few remaining voices of reason.  Neil deGrasse Tyson our modern incarnation of Carl Sagan has come to quell our fears.  Logic rules and it is incredibly comforting to realize what physics is and how all these pieces of our world fit together.  In the video you can see a clip of a man talking about the tides, this man is revered by thousands of Americans (if not more?) and he hasn't the most basic understanding of how gravity works.  It's disturbing.  But Neil can help us out of this one, Mr. O'Reilly, here's how the tides work:  The gravity of the moon pulls on the earth, and the gravity of the earth pulls on the moon, because of this force waves in the oceans are created, depending on the time of the day, the tide goes out and then comes back in again.  God didn't have much to do with that, unless we can allow for the fact that maybe God knows more about physics than we do and trust that he's smart enough to create these wondrous matters.  Just because science can explain something, doesn't make it any less of a beautiful fact.  Now let's imagine princess Leia as we chant like an animated gif re-looped "Help us Neil deGrasse Tyson, you're our only hope!"- with desperation.

Divine Inspiration

barefoot

she walks into the grass

dizzy

she sits down

"hello tree"

"hello dirt"

"welcome earth"

the octopus smiles on my shoulder

she takes the tokens out of her pocket

the moon resides along with:

a scorpion, a snake, a lion, a dragonfly, an elephant, a japanese yen, a quartz crystal, a rosary, a white candle.

she lays them out in front of her just so

she burns sage above her head

she lights the candle

and evokes

the eternal loving mother and goddess

isis

i can feel your influence

isis 

you cannot be ignored

isis and her animals

divine inspiration 

in a world with war

rape, killing, toxic fumes

i set out a bowl of water

in the moon light

now have a sip of moon water

thank your goddess

and be on your merry way

dont forget to acknowledge the journey

the flowers

the souls that pass you buy

the souls you interconnect with

my feet are dirt

my stomach the trunk of the tree

my head the branches

my thoughts the leaves

that fall on the ground

the acorn replants

in the dead and decaying earth

new life is brought forth once again,

and eternally, the cycle.

The Dueling Lions

you had me buried 

under the tamarisk tree

i had to put my pieces back together

my limbs and such and legs and such

you showed me the dragonfly

in such darkness

only such lightness

could remind me

to remind and kiss the herbature 

suck the red out my veins

sure

you left me bleeding

but i didnt care

look forward to the creative meeting

we create family

out of the seeking

for both our men 

need healing

and resting

across my streets

the crenshaws 

the virgin marys with

the dueling lions

such an artist be residing

and the spineless 

and Invertebrates

be my totems 

telling me to live this life free

but im bound everyday by rules

teaching you how to BE

stop feeling

you care too deeply

you ignore your worries

and your responsibilities

to journey
because today's my last

spirit.