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13 May 2013

Cyber-Transcendence, New Writing for SolPurpose, Mind Folds, & Festival Announcements

“The present is a freely given canvas.”
Annie Dillard

New Video – "A Love That We Built"


Watch a song come together from scratch in this video...the latest in my Rainbows at Night series.

Recorded live while opening for Papadosio at The Granada Theater in Lawrence, KS.  I was lucky enough to play two shows with them, in Austin and Lawrence, two weeks ago...if you don't know who they are yet, look them up, because not only are they redeeming live electronic music, they throw one of the best small festivals of the summer, Rootwire.

In somewhat related news, if you haven't heard it already, please go grab yourself a free download of Yellow Leaves.  People are reporting all manner of numinous open-sky release experiences with it.  :)

My talk with scholar-practitioner Marc Gafni
Download here

Check out this great conversation I had with Marc Gafni, Kabbalah scholar and author of the new book Your Unique Self.  We discussed evolutionary spirituality in The Age of Google; the innate dignity of our unique selfhood and the importance of embracing the ego as part of the spiritual path; what the end of privacy and the encroachment of a universal surveillance society means to the spiritual practitioner; and, ultimately, how to live in a digital world with heart.

Direct listening link is here.  If you'd also like to subscribe to more talks from this series, click here.

"Dont try to become a Buddha and dont try to become a Christ.  No imitation is going to help.  Whatsoever you do, try to do it in a new way.  Try to bring some individuality into it, bring some authentic signature.  Even cleaning a floor, you can do it in your own way; even cooking food, you can do it in your own way."
– Osho

Custom Painted Hats & Mind Folds
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I still have a few of my latest Grassroots California Artist Signature flatbills in every size except 7 3/4 and 8.  If you'd like one for $50 (plus s/h), just give me the word – custom painting on the hat's intentional negative space is available on a pay-what-you-like basis.


My first hat collaboration with painter Alicia Rockafellow.  Very happy with how this came out...

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Alex Grey invented the "Mind Fold" to allow total darkness with your eyes open.  These are all commissioned and sold, but I have more blank Mind Folds ready for painting if you'd like to order one, starting at $75.

New Articles for SolPurpose

Every once in a while I get worked up and write something truly meaningful.  Luckily, I was just appointed the Editor-in-Chief of SolPurpose.com, an amazing website covering festivals and visionary culture, so now I have a good place to publish those inspired rants...

"'Transformational Festivals' Are A Symptom of Dissociation"
"It is my hope in this accelerating age that we all become more comfortable with the discomfort needed to merely keep pace – that we become master transformers, all of us, ever learning, ever discovering, never settled fully into who we think we are. Our idea of doing in the world must move from one of control to one of collaboration in something always-greater-than. It is ironic that we must realize how a-part we are in order to feel complete; but it seems to me here now that this is our only chance at the wholeness we build festivals to seek."


"Reviewing Lisa Wimberger's New Beliefs, New Brain"
"Imagine for a moment a world in which our soldiers and emergency first responders are taught to manage their stress so they don’t escalate violent situations or suffer from untreated lifelong trauma.  Imagine a world in which our politicians and judges learn to ground themselves and view their thoughts from a place of neutrality.  Imagine how much healthier this world would be..."

Read more at SolPurpose.  (And if you'd like to write for us, drop me a line with your pitch.)

"Seraphim" Merchandise
iPhone 4 Case | iPhone 5 Case | Samsung Galaxy S3 Case

You can read about "Seraphim" and its connections to electromagnetism and ancient religions here.

Festival Appearances This Summer

More to be announced!  For now here are the big islands rising from an ocean of summer fun...


Thanks for reading!  I love you.

24 April 2013

Taking A Cosmic Perspective + My Latest Cyberacoustic Guitar EP

"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to 'die before you die' – and find that there is no death."
Eckhart Tolle

"What man can stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the meaning of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?"
Hal Borland

It isn't autumn – at least here in Austin.  But everyone I know is going through so much change – so much letting go, so much making room for new things – that the theme of autumn is timely nonetheless.

I'm proud to share with you my latest record, as well as the talk I gave at AURA Music Festival back in February – both of which center on facing the transcendental unknown with our heads up and our hearts open.  They're both free downloads.  Enjoy!

And stay in touch – I'm putting together a tour of the Southeast United States in early August and if you live nearby it would be great to connect.  Friends near Austin, Dallas, Denver, Boulder, and Kansas City, check out my concert calendar to check out the wonderful dates I already have planned to spend with you.  Love and blessings!

Yellow Leaves
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Recorded in a single take at a private backyard concert on Thanksgiving 2012, this 33:33 of improvised "cyberacoustic" instrumentals is my most spacious and poignant yet – evoking big autumn skies, far horizons, and the crunch of fallen leaves by bonfire light – but it defies expectations, remixing the familiar conventions of acoustic music with a fifty-pound pedalboard of beat slicers, filters, delays, and multi-channel loopers, welding fingerstyle technique into a cybernetic bed of live hardware production.

Picking (or often bowing, with an electromagnet) while twisting knobs and DJ'ing live samples with my toes, I perform as an embodiment of my training as an evolutionary biologist and futurist – liberating the organic into the digital, and the idioms of Americana into a new species of transcendental trance. 

Yellow Leaves is a definitive take on the adventurous and visionary musical attitude that earned my tenure as ReverbNation's #1 Experimental Musician in the world.

This performance was recorded on Thanksgiving 2012 and is a kind of musical fossil of that atmosphere of abundance and gratefulness. I hope that it serves you in your self-discovery. That its folksy-yet-futuristic vibe lends itself to your integration of past and future into the ever-blooming now. That it gets you laid by faeries.  (Based on the feedback so far, it may also be good for driving, painting, doing yoga, etc. I encourage you to experiment with set and setting.)

Pay whatever you like if the music works for you. I've had people reporting kundalini experiences, mad love sessions, and other wild shit going on with what I consider to be a pretty tame, if pretty, release.

Regardless, I would deeply appreciate it if you would share it with your people, and tag my music page.

Have a beautiful time with it, and thank you for receiving what I have to give!  Feedback welcome.

My talk from AURA Festival 2013
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My latest fleet jaunt through the wooded trails of the human imagination.  A philosophical performance examining our relationship to the transcendent – whether through awe and wonder or good old Fear of God, we all have an intense relationship with the Mystery – and how that relationship is due to change.

This time I took on the illusion of the individual, the evolution of technology, and the strangely familiar ancient future – weaving them all into a ripping speculative yarn on worlds beyond our imagination. I discuss right and wrong motivations for transhumanism, the prehistoric origins of the internet, and how the next industrial revolution might bring about a #festivalearth...

Here's the track list, to pique your interest.


Download it here.  Talk about it here.  Feel free to tag or email me with questions!

Customized MGxGRC Signature Flatbills

I still have a few hats in every size except 7 3/4 and 8.  If you'd like to order one of these with or without custom paint, email me and I'm happy to give you the details.




Custom Painted Hats

I don't have a lot of time to do hats before debarking for summer tour; but if you'd like one, hit me up!