Michael Garfield's Love Without End Tour Newsletter: July 2013

24 July 2013

The First Google Glass Music Videos | Cowboys Underground | New Hats & Shirt | My Burning Man Schedule

"Maps of reality are so powerful that we forget that they are maps."

"Language is more powerful than, and prior to, any other form of technology."

Well, guys, we are over the rainbow.  I just got back from a week in New York City, getting initiated into Google's Glass Explorer Program, that made my already-synchronistic life look like the black and white intro to Wizard of Oz.  I have so, SO many amazing things to share with you – too many to fit into this newsletter, which I may have to morph to a weekly offering in order to keep pace with the accelerating rate of amazement.  (It's paradoxically the only way I can respect your time – by not making you read an entire magazine every time I send you updates.)

To my knowledge, I'm the first person in the world to record point-of-view video from stage while performing live music – at Penny's Open Mic in the East Village:

"It Hurts So We're Not Dead" in NYC #throughglass


...and then I stopped off on my way out of town at Evan "Skytree" Snyder's apartment to film this music video in his awesome bedroom mirror:

"The Cartographers" in NYC #throughglass


And in just 48 hours, I'm celebrating the end of José Arguelles' Dreamspell Calendar AND psychedelic visionary Aldous Huxley's birthday by screencasting my performance at Gratifly Festival through a projector and onto the stage behind me – closing the loop between artist and audience, letting people see firsthand what I'm doing with my equipment and what they look like on stage.  THIS is digital empathy, people!  A true and utter paradigm shift.  I'm extremely honored to have this opportunity and am already eager to share it with you.  I hope you'll be there but if you aren't, worry not: like everything these days, it WILL be recorded.  ;)

Now, of course, I haven't stopped sharing my "Landscape Channel" video series, which is another angle on the "Michael's point-of-view" idea and an attempt to share with you some of the beautiful places I get to inhabit in my travels.  Here's one from Om Vibrations 2013, where you get to see the amazing lighting design by Synaesthesiax that made this cave jam such a treat for the eyeballs:

"Cowboys Underground" – Live in Longhorn Cavern


New Hats for The Headspace


A series of collaborations with my main conspirator-in-art and awesome roommate, Chaeli Cardenas.
Check out The Headspace for more great custom designs by me and a bunch of other artists...

New Hat & T-Shirt for Herbivore Designs

My third artist signature hat for Grassroots California is about to be released through Austin's own Herbivore Designs.  This is the first hat I've painted with a final embroidered product in mind, and in my personal opinion it's my best yet:


The hat has an accompanying Herbivore Designs tee – I really enjoyed getting back to my roots with pen and ink line illustration and going full-melt on this life-after-death design:


Burning Man: Oh it's on.

Yes, it's true.  I'll be staging my humbly triumphant return to this synchronicity pressure cooker just in time to contribute my music and ideas to some of the finest speaker line-ups this side of the millenium...

(I'll also be roving the Playa in my new life as a Glass Correspondent, covering all of the most amazing new technologies and art installations I can find.  Stay tuned for more about that in the weeks to come as I gear up for a crowdfunding campaign to defray my expenses and share a few of the amazing inventions I encountered on my trip to New York.)

My full BRC schedule is TBA – but for now, check out the amazing offerings by these two camps:


Fractal Planet is also taking a quantum leap and powering their camp with a RevAir vertical mag-lev wind turbine – clean, quiet energy that will turn the desert winds into the electrical life of celebration. Support their crowdfunding campaign and help usher in a new era for transformational festivals...

You may remember Palenque Norte as the annual conference co-founded by Terence McKenna back in the 1990s.  It is still going strong in Black Rock City and has featured such luminaries as Alex & Allyson Grey, Alexander & Ann Shulgin, John Perry Barlow, Bruce Damer, and more...

So Begins My Tour of the Southeast...

The Love Without End Tour rolls through South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Ohio starting tomorrow.  Check my website's sidebar for a full calendar, or click the pics below for highlights:

Awesome first-year thing.  If all goes according to plan, my first performance with Glass.

An official Gratifly after-party!

A Unitus Festival pre-party ft. the music of The Fresh French, Kynara, & Feverkin.

This one came out of nowhere and is gearing up to be one of this summer's sleeper hits.

A tiny but juicy event in the beautiful mountains outside Boone, NC.

My fourth year out of four. Easily one of the best festivals of the entire year. Period.


And thank you for reading!  I hope you get as much out of this as I put into it.  Feedback is always welcome.  May your life be full of inspiration, empowerment, and beauty!

10 July 2013

Most Awesome Update Yet: MG + Google Glass | Paintings From Sonic Bloom | My Sets From Om Vibrations | The Science of Transformation | Skytree Interview

"The millenial program is to put the art pedal to the floor."
Terence McKenna, 1994

"The Speed of Light is too damn slow."
Dr. Steven Greer, 2013


BIG NEWS!  Google picked me to be part of their Glass Explorers program and I'll be one of the first 2000 people to own and play with their new augmented reality smartphone glasses.  This is science fiction turned reality, guys...and I promise you I'll be making the most of my new life as a cyborg, delving into new realms of creativity and communication for the benefit of all beings.

If you know any app developers, please connect us – I'm putting out a call to programmers to help me realize some of my wild ideas for what we can do with this.  In the meantime, I'm going to take advantage of the ability to stream first-person video from stage while performing, and to offer over-the-shoulder guitar lessons to people in video chat.  (Email me if you're interested.)

But as someone passionate about the ways that our ideas and experience of selfhood are changing in this accelerating age, I also see this as a chance to get involved in a revolution – a radical shift in the way we understand transparency, privacy, and the self-other boundary.

These are turbulent times, but I've been extremely inspired by arguments from people like Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) – who points out how as it becomes harder and harder to hide things from one another, we're entering a new age of authenticity, accountability, and understanding.  I highly recommend reading his article, "Crime and Privacy," for more on that.

I'll be launching a crowdfunding campaign to help me with the opportunity cost of becoming a real-life Manfred Macx.  In the meantime, I have one of the most delicious updates yet to share with you...

Thank you for your time, attention, and support.  Here are the fruits of my love's labor:

Sonic Bloom 2013 Collaboration Mural
Click below to view the progress:
Acrylic & Paint Markers on Stretched Canvas – 4' x 5'

For my fifth year as the Live Art Director for Sonic Bloom, I wanted to kick things up a notch.  And what better way than a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between myself, Morgan Mandala, Jack Shure, Molly Gardner, Xavi Panneton, Andy Reed, Seth McMahon, Tourmaline Todd, Christopher Morphis, Chaeli Cardenas, Dylan Thomas Brooks, Jamie Kaminskas, ChelseaLyn Graber, & Jon Dooey...

You can find links to each of those artists and explore their individual work here.

Multitudes

Click below to view the progress:
Paint Markers, Acrylic, & Mountain Stream Water on Masonite – 24" x 32"

Painted live at Sonic Bloom 2013 to the music of Sunsquabi, Love & Light, Phutureprimitive, Nunchuck, J. Wail, The Acidophiles, Ableminds, Unlimited Aspect, Janover & Resunator, Random Rab, The Grouch & Eligh, Andreilien, Opiuo, Yamn, The Werks, Bluetech, Zilla, Polish Ambassador, Vibesquad, Akara, Knowa Knowone

My Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology horoscope for the week of Sonic Bloom encouraged me to play looser and messier than I ordinarily do...so I started this painting by dunking it in the rushing creek, and painting along the drips.

It's an unusually dark and spectral piece for me – strange and haunting. I wondered why I felt compelled to paint something so reminiscent of the ancestors...and then on Sunday it all became clear.

The rubber really hit the road with this "transformational festival," and everyone there rose to the occasion with tremendous grace under pressure.  It was an honor to participate in something that tested us all so profoundly, brought us all closer together, and in so doing "polished our pearls."  Come to think of it, there is definitely a pearlescent lustre in this piece.  Huh.  The plot thickens...

If you see festival director Jamie Janover on the street, thank him for all his hard work.

My Sets From Om Vibrations Experience 2013

So THIS is what it sounds like to play setbreaks between Random Rab, Kaminanda, & Rudra Das in a cave!  My profound gratitude to Jason, Austen, and the whole family at Re:Evolution Media for this opportunity.

That gorgeous cover art was digitally painted live, and projected on the cave ceiling, by Topher Sipes of ARTheism during my sets and theirs.

"The Science of Transformation"
Sonic Bloom Trialogue w/ Mark Heley, MG, & Jonathan Zap

Easily one of the best and most inspiring conversations I've ever had.  I was honored to be invited by Mark Heley, author of The Everything Guide to 2012, to sit in on his talk at Sonic Bloom along with Jonathan Zap, author of Crossing The Event Horizon: Human Metamorphosis & The Singularity Archetype.  (I recommend you find and read both of those books. After listening to this conversation, I'm sure you'll want to.)

Incidentally, we're all speaking in the awesome all-star lineup Burning Man's Fractal Planet Village this year.  Just take a gander at that schedule.  Wow!

SolPurpose Conversations, Episode 1: Evan "Skytree" Snyder

“The key to our survival and the deepest expression of our collective fear is one and the same.”

We are proud to announce the first episode of a new video series, SolPurpose Conversations! Visionary electronic music producer Evan “Skytree” Snyder joins SolPurpose editor-in-chief Michael Garfield for an inspired hour-long conversation on how to live in creative celebration through our turbulent Age of Transition.

More Gigs This Summer
(Full concert calendar on my website.)
Ft. live art by Harrison Hilley, Chance Losher, Claire Spiderlashes, Trinh Nguyen, & Parker Bolles

Awesome first-year thing.  If all goes according to plan, my first performance with Glass.

An official Gratifly after-party!

A Unitus Festival pre-party ft. the music of The Fresh French, Kynara, & Feverkin.

This one came out of nowhere and is gearing up to be one of this summer's sleeper hits.

A tiny but juicy event in the beautiful mountains outside Boone, NC.

My fourth year out of four.  Easily one of the best festivals of the entire year.  Period.


Thank you for wading through that tome of an update!  I love you.  Onward...