"Life is a copiously branching bush, continually pruned by the grim reaper of extinction, not a ladder of predictable progress."
"Extinct" live at Whip In (feat. Toni Lane Casserly)
I turned 28 this year, on January 8th – a birthday I share with fellow mystic rockers Elvis Presley, David Bowie, and Stephen Hawking. Part of my strong association with the Capricorn archetype is what the ancients called "melancholy humor" – a moodiness that draws me inward to reflect on cosmic truths, predisposing me toward science and philosophy, fixing my attention on the profound vistas of the interior landscape.
To celebrate this portentious day – when Saturn (the planet of time, fate, and responsibility) returns to where it was on the day I was born – I played my ode to the inescapable reality of death at the show that night. "Extinct," originally recorded at last year's Manifestation Celebration next to dinosaur skeletons in the Dallas Natural History Museum, carries the Buddha's tears on its sonic conduits. It's a reminder that all the life we enjoy is given us by the death that made room for us – that our own transformations are to be welcomed, and black is as holy as green.
It may not seem like a timely message as spring blooms all around us, but when I had to pick a track to go on my friend's recent benefit compilation for Rock Against Cancer, it was the obvious choice. "Death is the road to awe," as they said in The Fountain – it's half of the mystery of existence, half of our nature, and thus it is to be embraced as we come to know and love everything we are. Wisdom grows from accepting our limitedness so thoroughly that we move through it into our eternal nature...
Interview With Everyday Guitar Gear
"A transcendent exploration of what one man can achieve with an acoustic guitar...his glitched-out grooves [are] simultaneously calm yet very much switched-on."
Now, anyone who wants a window into my process as an improvisational "cyberacoustic" guitarist can read all about it in this article – where I go into detail about every pedal I use, as well as the inspiration behind my playing and what's it's like for me to do this crazy octopus high-wire act on stage.
“When I pick up my guitar and play, I’m agreeing that this is an instrument, that this is a guitar, that I play the guitar, and that I play the guitar in some specific way. That this is what it’s ‘for.’ There are an infinite number of ways for the universe to express itself through the functional relationship between a human being and a guitar.” (read more)
If you're a musician or freestyler of any kind, you'll dig the conversation...
Maithuna
(a collaboration w/ Chaeli Cardenas)
18"x24" - paint markers on masonite
I worked on this painting for weeks at farmer's markets and street fairs in Boulder last summer before throwing up my hands in frustration and handing it over to my friend Chaeli Cardenas to do with as she pleased. And "as she pleased" turned out to be pretty amazing.
Legend has it that I inspired Chaeli to pick up paint markers at the Shpongle show in Dallas two years ago...and she immediately overtook me with her talent, painting gorgeous animal portraits of depth, sensitivity, and playfulness. (Do you see the hidden wolf in the painting above?)
All sales of this print are split between me and Chaeli, who just moved down to Austin on a wing and a prayer to start a new artistic life on her own terms...help her follow her bliss!
Hand-Painted Hats
There's still a week or two remaining to preorder one of the amazing embroidered flatbills Grassroots California is making with my design – here's the picture if you haven't seen it – email me if you'd like to buy one directly from the artist before GRC announces their own presale and they're gone for good!
Here is the latest batch of hand-painted custom caps:
New Article at SolPurpose.com
Another installation in the ongoing series, Ode To A Paradigm Shift, hosted by my good friends at their inspirational media portal SolPurpose.com. This one's about the secret spirituality inherent in science, and the beautiful humility of our unique place in the universe: "Copernicus & The Sacred Humility of Science"
"Insofar as science is the process of expanding the boundaries of our ignorance, it is a sacred mission of continual decentralization, marginalization, and humbling. But when all is said and done we are in some sense exactly where we started, because we are in the dead (nay, living) center of the human experience, just as we always were. As our technologies allow us to perceive ever-greater celestial objects, they allow us to peer deeper and deeper into the realms of the inconceivably small…but we always seem to remain poised perfectly between these two extremes, precisely in the middle of the human cosmic measure." (read more)
Next Week...
In the meantime, thanks for reading, feel welcome to reach out with questions or comments, and have a magnificent day...
