Michael Garfield's Love Without End Tour Newsletter: January 2017

25 January 2017

I'm In Australia! // New Song, 360 Video, Painting, Stickers // Westworld Problems & Body Hacking on Future Fossils


“Do not look for the purpose. Think of the way we came and be a little proud. Think of this hand – the utter pain of its first venture on the pebbly shore.”
– Loren Eiseley, poet-archeologist

Greetings, friends!  Since we're now at cruising altitude on the adventure that is 2017...

I'm on tour in Australia for the next month.  Here's my tour schedule (more updates to come) – if you know people out this way please introduce us!  Time is precious and I'm eager to contribute all I can to the enduring reputation of Americans as generous, inspired, helpful, interesting, lovely people, regardless of the tensions of our world at large.

Thanks hugely to my supporters on Patreon for helping me fund this trip.  You've helped me immensely with your many modest contributions – every bit has helped and I can't wait to pay it back

Here are my latest works, for you – the fruits of my love's labor – enjoy, and stay in touch!

MUSIC
"Indecision" 
Unplugged in Odemira, Portugal
(freestyle instrumental intro) 

Filmed at the ruins of a gorgeous old windmill in rural Portugal while I was visiting form Boom Festival in August 2016.  My song off the forthcoming album about how every moment of our lives is like a little near-death experience. Every choice we make, a little death...a gorgeous new horizon.

Be sure to watch this video on Chrome or the YouTube app so you can move around it and explore the whole surround...   Full lyrics and more info here.

In the moment before acting lies a void
where every future gleams, reflecting every other

each potential a uniquely blooming world.

In the space between two thoughts

where every instant pours, expanding now into infinity
and every possibility unfurls...
How do you choose your next life?

ARTWORK
"The Land After Time (Littlefoot Considers Singularities)"
48"x24" // paint pens on canvas

The Land Before Time is one of my favorite movies from childhood; the title implies an antipode, a post-historical reciprocation.  In my vision of this moment, my most time-intensive painting to date and the latest in my series, The Psychedelic Age of Dinosaurs (Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, and more soon), Littlefoot grows up and lives through the Singularity to inhabit a transfigured landscape populated by mysterious and metamorphic life-forms...

Painted at Unify Festival 2016 (Santa Fe, New Mexico), Green Beer Festival 2016 (Boulder, Colorado), and months of work in my Austin, Texas studio.  Finished on New Year's Eve 2016.


New 4"x3" Stickers: "Beija Flor" & "End of the World Party"
High Quality Weather Resistant Vinyl, 
Backsplit & UV Coated


PODCAST


The show that explores our distant past, deep future, and the countless other dimension-perspectives on time and the human condition that our mainstream narratives ignore.  Subscribe to us on iTunes (for iOS) or Stitcher (for Android).  Here are our latest episodes:

0014:  "Westworld Problems" with Michael Phillip

One of my favorite TV shows ever, Westworld, deserves a conversation smart enough to match its writing.  If you're not familiar with this awesome sci-fi series and its explorations of consciousness, robotics, free will, and the human spirit – go watch the first season right now and then come back and listen to this fun and penetrating chat with Michael Phillip, host of the Third Eye Drops podcast, on what WE think's going on in Westworld...  (Download here.)


0015:  Body Hacking & Sensory Substitution with Trevor Goodman

While I'm in Australia, I'm missing a super fun and interesting event in Austin, The Body Hacking Conference.  Trevor Goodman helps throw this annual celebration of our expanding horizons and bold new approaches to re-imagining the human body.  This conversation gets into some very out-there places – but nothing that won't seem normal in ten years...  (Download here.)

UPCOMING


05 January 2017

Happy New Year! It's An Art Explosion: John Speaker Collab // Free Ableton Live Pack // Future Fossils Episode 13 // Synchronicity & The Inner Eye

“We try to be conscious and respectful of our neighbors…and yet, we MUST prevail.”
– Alex Grey


Greetings, friends, and Happy New Year!  According to the Chinese Calendar, 2017 will be the Year of the Fire Rooster.  Given my love for sacred flames and bird-related things, I'm already gearing up for a year that feels like home:  wild independence, visionary ventures, channeled positive aggression, yang creative push to new horizons, yes let's do this!

Making room for new beginnings also means the end of some things I've held dear.  Tonight is the last Loopers' Night (the music monthly residency that I've hosted here for years).  I'm painting much less live work now, and more at home (where I can join you guys for webcast art jams, like next Friday's).

Fewer public appearances in general means more time to work on my book, album, and podcast – all part of an ecosystem of ideas and art I'm making this year to help people navigate our increasingly psychedelic century.  If you'd like privileged access to my new work and the satisfaction of supporting independent art, please check this out:


And now here are the new things.  Enjoy, and Happy New Year...!

New Collaboration with John Speaker
18"x24" // acrylic // canvas // sold

A collaboration with John Speaker, to whom I mailed this painting halfway through.  He took a piece that led to a dead end for me, and lifted it to new heights. (We've never met in person.)  Check out our as-yet-unclaimed other collaboration by mail here.

Free Ableton Live Pack

I've been making music with the amazing digital audio workstation Ableton Live since I got my first Macbook in 2004...but I've mostly kept it to myself. As I embark on the adventure of recording and publishing my first studio album in nearly a decade, I'd like to share with you some of the tools and toys I'm making for this project. So here is my way overdue first Live Pack, containing two drum racks I'm using for sample-based electronic percussion on the new album.

Both of these drum racks are based on a single-take sample recorded through a Beyerdynamic M88-TG microphone, a hypercardioid condenser mic renowned for its excellent flat EQ response and full-spectrum sound. Both slice one sample into sixteen short clips to be triggered as percussion hits (in my case with a Keith McMillen QuNeo MIDI controller – but you could use just about anything that will send pressure-sensitive commands).

Plenty more sample-based synthesizers and drum kits to come. My hope is that you have fun with these – and that you share whatever music they inspire!

(If you would like to learn the basics of music production and performance with Ableton Live, I'm happy to get you started with lessons over video chat. I'm eager to share more technical knowledge in the years to come, and share the joy of making music/paintings/writing/podcasts/anything I do...)

New Episode of Future Fossils with Rupert "Dr. Chill" Till

“I keep saying to people, this is work. I’m not here on holiday…I’m here disseminating the results from a 3.5 Million Pound European research project.”
– Dr. Chill

Our thirteenth episode features Dr. Rupert Till, aka Dr. Chill, the world’s first PhD in Electronic Chillout Music. Dr. Chill has a habit of reconstructing ancient acoustic spaces from caves and temples, then writing electronic chill out music with 3D printed replicas of the world’s oldest instruments. In other words, he’s a badass at the intersection of academic archeology and international dance festival culture. A pretty great place to be!

We had an amazing conversation about his research, rites of passage, and the perennial trance dance that defines us as human beings at Boom Festival.

Subscribe to, Rate, and Review Future Fossils Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher Radio.

(Or download the episode and read show notes here.)

Guest on Synchronicity Podcast

I had a wonderful time on the Synchronicity Podcast, discussing "the usual": psychedelics, shadow work, nonduality...dinosaurs...we really went for it with this one.

Give it a listen here.

Guest on The Inner Eye Podcast

The Inner Eye podcast is a collection of spontaneous and casual conversations with visionary artist Jake Kobrin exploring the subjects of art and creativity as well as things of relevance to navigating our existence such as religion and spirituality and psychedelics.  

Listen to our episode here.

Upcoming Awesomeness


The FINAL Loopers' Night is this Thursday.  For the last two years, my cohost cellist Jen Mulhern and I have led groups of daring instrumentalists through alternately groovy and hypnotic electronic live improvisations.  Every month we welcomed new musicians into the adventure.  This month Jen and I move on to dedicate ourselves to other projects, but we're going out in style...

RSVP and learn about participating acts here.