A Sneak Peek Of My Coolest Painting Yet

"Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life.  Give freely.  Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve.  Learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation.  Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all.  Cultivate vigor, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride.  Then, you will achieve your destiny."

– Krishna

Every Day Is A New Year (Unfinished)

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Preorder Prints of the Finished Painting

Click on the picture to get a better look at my anticipatory portrait of 2013, in all of its dragon-UFO-space-buddha glory.  (In an homage to Android Jones' 2011 Burning Man ticket art, yes that is a tiny buddha meditating on the brow of the great dragon.)  I started this piece at Rootwire Festival back in August and have taken it all over Central Texas since, including Art Outside Festival and shows with Papadosio, Octopus Nebula, The Human Experience, and Kaminanda.

I'm taking preorders now for 11"x17" prints of the completed painting (I want to have it finished in time for the Solstice, wink) – as well as accepting bids for the painting itself, which will be professionally scanned and made available on stretched canvas fine art giclée prints for anyone interested.

(Everyone who preorders it gets a free download of my album, Golden Hour: A Cyberacoustic Summer Daydream, which is indeed about as dreamy as I can make it.  Good for writing and yoga, I hear.  Enjoy!)

 Click for a closer view of the process:

Visionary Soundscapes:

A Conversation with Electronic Musician Mystical Sun

My latest article for badass culture blog Reality Sandwich is an in-depth conversation with studio electronic music sculptor Mystical Sun.  Here's a taste.  You can read the entire conversation and album review here...

"The relationship between 'music' and 'noise' is that they're from the same source and everything else is just subtle differences.  I don't distinguish between the two.  Typical music is about relationships, emotions, stories, opinions, politics, etc.  The vision I have for my music is closer to virtual reality:  I'm not writing songs about what's happened in my life; I'm attempting to create music that transports listeners out of the day-in/day-out world, like a good science fiction movie might...each second is unique and not repeated."

- Mystical Sun

The Latest Custom Painted Hats

It continues to amaze me that sometime in the last year I acquired a reputation for "straight killin' it with the dope headwear"...as it were.  ;)  I'm honored and endlessly grateful that you all continue to show your support and offer me these opportunities to bless your heads.  If you'd like your own one-of-a-kind custom hat, or want me to make one for someone you love, just email me and we can talk budget and logistics.  You can check out the hats so far on my FB art page.

This one was for a friend to wear at his wedding:

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This one was a birthday present for a Bassnectar fan, so I worked the logo all subtly into a few places:

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Help Me Win 75 Hours of Studio Recording Time!

Thanks to everyone who has voted so far, I'm pulling a 100-vote lead in a competition by The Recording Conservatory of Austin to win 75 hours of studio recording time...this is the break that would finally enable me to record the pro studio album I've been wanting to make for over a decade.

Please take ten seconds to vote for me (you don't have to sign up for anything) and SHARE THIS LINK with your friends:  http://a.pgtb.me/cG4D  Voting ends December 4th. One vote per IP address and email address. Play fair, now!

And once you've voted, please help yourself to a complimentary copy of Deleted Scenes: Outtakes from Love Scenes & Field Recordings, my latest live EP.  Not to mention all of the other music I've made available as a gift to you...

Thank You

That's all for now.  Thank you so much for reading!  This newsletter is a constant reminder to be grateful for my opportunity to serve and inspire others.  Without you, I would never have learned how doing what I love can have a positive impact on people.  So let me just express my deep gratitude for you, on the other end of this connection.  I wish you a most wonderful day!

More Fedoras, Music For Yoga, & MG Joins The Meme Game

"Art SHOULD be one of the tools we use to improve our society.  Art SHOULD be didactic."

- Alain de Botton

Let The Memespiration Begin!

Pictures are more evocative than text, and I'm committed to reaching as many people I can with a message of hope through all of these crazy changes.  The most profound truths require the fewest words – so internet memes, it turns out, are one of the best ways to spread this hope.

I'll be sharing more of these as they come to me.  May they give you some perspective on a difficult situation and encourage you to be even more of a creative participant in the better world we're building together...

It seems to be working.  This is my most-shared post of all time:

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Help Me Win 75 Hours of Studio Time!

(According to ReverbNation, anyway.  I live in the hometown of psychedelic rock, so this comes as a surprise to me...)

I'm a finalist in a competition by The Recording Conservatory of Austin to win 75 hours of studio recording time and $500 of music software!  Please take ten seconds to vote for me (you don't have to sign up for anything) and SHARE THIS LINK with your friends: http://a.pgtb.me/cG4D

I've recorded over a dozen live albums in the last five years but need to put a studio album together if I am to be taken seriously by the music industry. This could really help launch my career – so if you want to get social with it, I've made a Facebook event page to spread around.  Thanks in advance for helping me bring you a record worth sharing with your kids, someday...

Music For Yoga.  Finally!

This Week In Manifestation:  after so many of you told me my albums A Million Anniversaries and Golden Hour made for great yoga music, I had to find out whether it would actually work live during yoga classes.  And then I moved to Austin, where – lo and behold – the increasingly popular Wanderlust Festival just opened a permanent live music and yoga studio!

Playing at Wanderlust Live is a dream come true.  It took a couple months to line up our schedules, but I just did two classes there with vinyasa mama Gioconda Parker and the energy was awesome.  People dug it.  I suspect that these sets are even better for your flow and movement exercises than my other stuff, and will be making a point to share it with you as soon as possible.

If you're in or near Austin, Texas, then stop on in and join us!  Your first class is free, so it's like going to a concert and getting world-class yoga instruction at the same time without having to pay.  (Although I'll bet you want to come back...)

And while we're on the subject of yoga music...

FREE EP – Outtakes From

Love Scenes & Field Recordings

The love has been pouring in for my latest album, Love Scenes & Field Recordings, the chronicle of this summer's four-month, seventeen-state tour.  But if you're the kind of person who can't scrounge up $11.11 and buy it, you can still taste the glory from my sets at Rootwire Festival, Desert Rocks Festival, and The Parish with The Nadis Warriors with this free EP.

I love these tracks, but there were minor glitches in the recordings – noisy cables and stuff like that – that disqualified them from the main release.  Here's twenty minutes of total fun.  Enjoy it!

You can pick up your copy on Bandcamp or ultra-cool underground site ListenerApproved.  And if you like that album art, you can thank my man Geoglyphiks, whose work constantly inspires me.

Custom-Painted Hats

Don't think of them as painted hats; think of them as paintings on hats.  Art you can carry with you wherever you go (you know, just like your human body).  I love doing these and do my best to keep this work affordable.  Hit me up if you'd like one of your own...

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Anyone who's been reading this newsletter for a while knows how much time I volunteer to help out people in need of some support or encouragement – somewhere in the hundreds of hours a month.  If this blog has inspired you, please consider visiting my homepage and making a donation.

Thanks for reading and have a fantastic day!