Rolling Stone by Robert Service

There's sunshine in the heart of me,
My blood sings in the breeze;
The mountains are a part of me,
I'm fellow to the trees.
My golden youth I'm squandering,
Sun-libertine am I;
A-wandering, a-wandering,
Until the day I die.

I was once, I declare, a Stone-Age man,
And I roomed in the cool of a cave;
I have known, I will swear, in a new life-span,
The fret and the sweat of a slave:
For far over all that folks hold worth,
There lives and there leaps in me
A love of the lowly things of earth,
And a passion to be free.

To pitch my tent with no prosy plan,
To range and to change at will;
To mock at the mastership of man,
To seek Adventure's thrill.
Carefree to be, as a bird that sings;
To go my own sweet way;
To reck not at all what may befall,
But to live and to love each day.

To make my body a temple pure
Wherein I dwell serene;
To care for the things that shall endure,
The simple, sweet and clean.
To oust out envy and hate and rage,
To breathe with no alarm;
For Nature shall be my anchorage,
And none shall do me harm.

To shun all lures that debauch the soul,
The orgied rites of the rich;
To eat my crust as a rover must
With the rough-neck down in the ditch.
To trudge by his side whate'er betide;
To share his fire at night;
To call him friend to the long trail-end,
And to read his heart aright.

To scorn all strife, and to view all life
With the curious eyes of a child;
From the plangent sea to the prairie,
From the slum to the heart of the Wild.
From the red-rimmed star to the speck of sand,
From the vast to the greatly small;
For I know that the whole for good is planned,
And I want to see it all.

To see it all, the wide world-way,
From the fig-leaf belt to the Pole;
With never a one to say me nay,
And none to cramp my soul.
In belly-pinch I will pay the price,
But God! let me be free;
For once I know in the long ago,
They made a slave of me.

In a flannel shirt from earth's clean dirt,
Here, pal, is my calloused hand!
Oh, I love each day as a rover may,
Nor seek to understand.
To enjoy is good enough for me;
The gipsy of God am I;
Then here's a hail to each flaring dawn!
And here's a cheer to the night that's gone!
And may I go a-roaming on
Until the day I die!

Then every star shall sing to me
Its song of liberty;
And every morn shall bring to me
Its mandate to be free.
In every throbbing vein of me
I'll feel the vast Earth-call;
O body, heart and brain of me
Praise Him who made it all!

Wish you were here with me :(

Here is a sweet website where you can type in your address and print it out on an envelope template. so cool!

http://www.mapenvelope.com/

Here is my current residence - super exciting.

My Fantasy.

Improv Everywhere: I LOVE Lunch!



If every lunch were like this, the world would be a happier and healthier place.

Improv Everywhere: Black Tie Beach

This is the work of a wonderful organization who's mission is:

"Causing scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving tens of thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City."

This particular scene: BLACK TIE BEACH "we had several hundred agents spend a day at Coney Island / Brighton Beach wearing black tie attire. We covered a mile-long stretch of beach with a diverse group of people of all ages (from babies to sixty-somethings) laying out, playing games, and swimming in the ocean, all in formal wear. Agents were instructed to find cheap tuxedos and ball gowns at thrift stores for the occasion."

I want Marcel as my best friend.

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

The Big Easy

Darcy came over and we had a little art/new orleans/wine/sorbet/jazz/crickets/harmonica evening. This was one of the pics she grabbed off a piece i am in process with. I really dig the composition of the newspapers and the 'work' title in the background. fabuloso!

Massive North Atlantic Garbage Patch Mapped

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Lets Go.

The truth is I do have a lot to lose. And I hate that I am growing up and becoming soaked with convention through and through. I am faced with the reality that I can't just take off and live in a van for a year. I mean I could...but is that really what I want or should be doing? I am building the connections here in Southern California and will most likely end up here after I graduate. I am weirdly OK with that...I wouldn't have been 3 months ago. I WANT to be self sufficient, pay off my loans, buy a computer, buy a camera and be 'comfortable'....ewe! What has happened to me? maturity? truth? acceptance? contentment?

Chantilly Clad

This was an event that the Arts Council of Long Beach put on as part of the "A Lot" Series where they use vacant spaces to make them public art use. This beautiful stage and installation was created by the art group Greenmeme. Their design was to use Long Beach's industrial skyline and the juxtaposition of the nautical history to create a wonderful lace structure.

During the two day event, Paul Dateh and DJ Inkah one juxtaposed classical violin with hip hop beats to create a spectacular first performance under the Chantilly Clad installation. The concert was part of the Summer and Music series. The evening also had a panel discussion about public art and civic engagement.

I got to work the info booth both nights and had such a blast buskering people for their emails and telling them GLOBAL! Plus a few of my wonderful friends stopped by: Darcy and Ryan the sailor.

A GIANT TURTLE FOUND = A bundle of fun.

Extinct, King Koopa-Style Giant Turtle Found on Pacific Island


Well looks like this cutie's shell was 5 ft. long. I don't know about you but I am picturing myself bareback on my very own pet turtle, sauntering across the shores of Samoa and feeding this beast whole coconuts and kava. My occupation would be to breed them so these lil tykes would never become extinct. Then we could all have giant turtles. One for everyone!

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Plane ticket to Paris...S'il vous plait?

Cataphiles are urban explorers who illegally tour the Paris "catacombs", the term popularly used to describe a series of underground tunnels that were formerly a network of stone mines.

I think I felt that way once.

Anxiety

Your brain carries a basket of neurons constantly being teased and knocked over by the devilish Amygdala.

that repetitive game makes you desire what you don't need and act on your reckless instinct to quench your thirst - even though you know it's poison you're drinking.

Don't drink that poison. Stare at it. let it collect dust.

Then let your thoughts be drilled and leaked from the profound revines of your memory trap. let them socialize with the poison, flush them both, and watch the rusted liquid dissolve into the greater abyss.

And you'll laugh as the wasted moments and tarnished daydreams flee from your mind.

The Early Man

What were they really like? Something tells me they didn't obsess about little splinters. They probably felt alive everytime they took a breath, every time they stepped, every time they blinked. they had no frame of reference. they didn't speculate, interrogate, doubt. they survived. and then died.

Summer and Music Festival - swing jive and wail

I really do love Long Beach. I mean look at these people. this was an awesome swing dancing festival that I witnessed and took part in. everybody came out- drunks, zoot suits, 40's pin up girls, hippies, business men, swanky mad men, hipsters, beach bums, and artists. it was such a riot. also behind is the old book store "Acres of Books" that will house the new ArtXChange . they were having a fundraiser - $25 for a crate and as many books as you can fit in it. It all took place right down the street from 2nd Saturday Art walk. The community comes alive when there is a plethera of paint, vintage, quirky people, and dancing. THAT is my type of city.

So far..so ridiculously good

looks like i missed the whole month of june and half of July.

here is what i have been up to:

NYC
more weddings
arts council internship
pirate ships and sailors
aquariums
piano bars
painting painting painting but not nearly enough
gym
loving long beach and wanting to move here
lightbulb mouth radio hour
new LB friends
networking
GLOBAL
9-5
art walks
Pasadena
NOT azusa. thank God
God
discovering
searching
learning
devoting
loving
BFF with the parents
World Cup
Beach
Octopus Wall
cigarettes cough cough
guiness
embracing
living with all my heart
journaling
reading
swing dancing
irish dancing
drum circles
dancing dancing dancing


It has been a pretty active summer. And I am realizing that i like routine and this 9-5 job isn't all that bad. I get more stuff done and feel more alive. I am beyond blessed and just got asked to extend my internship. yippee!

The Princess Bride

Tomorrow i get to join in the fiesta of my friend Courtney's wedding. I absolutely cannot wait to bask in the sun with my best friends, get crrrrunk at the bachelorette, and part take in the the holy matrimony of two hilarious, lovely people.

yay for maaaawwwwwiiaggeeee.

I have a lust for rust. When I find it, I just whip out my camera phone. Enjoy.

A Map of the US...Made of Slime Mold

This particular type of mold is finding its own ways of growing across the United States. Researches are hoping it will give scientific help to building future road systems.

I love how the natural patterns of this earth are somehow more efficient then our man made structures.

Money Money Money

freedom and restriction. Fame and failure. life and death.

Shall we go back to the barter system? I could create art every day in exchange for plane tickets, technology, and dinner parties. hmmm. yes.

Frans Lanting's lyrical nature photos | Video on TED.com

Frans Lanting's lyrical nature photos | Video on TED.com

This is an interesting video of pictures from famed Nat Geo photographer, Frans Lanting. It goes through the evolutionary theory of the earth in pictures. I love the end where he points out the blood veins and brain routes mimicking the veins in the earth and the winding rivers. this is a concept I have been reflecting on for the past couple of years as I find connections through different satellite images of the earth and microscopic images of our bodies.

The strive for perfection.

My friend Greg emailed this to me from Seth Godin's blog:

The Pursuit of Perfect
How many of your coworkers spend all day in search of perfect? Or, more accurately, spend all day trying to avoid making a mistake? These are very different things. Defect-free is what people are often in search of. Meeting spec. Blameless. We've all been trained since the first grade to avoid mistakes. The goal of any test, after all, is to get 100 percent. No mistakes. Get nothing wrong and you get an A, right? Read someone's resume, and discover twenty years of extraordinary exploits and one type. Which are you going to mention first? We hire for perfect, we manage for perfect, we measure for perfect, and we reward perfect. So why are we surprised that people spend their precious minutes of self-directed, focused work time trying to achieve perfect?

The problem is simple: Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about.

Hopefully the point is clear, that he is advocating being an artist over trying to be error free. Your grammar isn't what you are selling.

Call of the Wild by Robert Service

Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there’s nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God’s sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert’s little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild -- it’s calling you.

Have you known the Great White Silence,
not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies).
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map’s void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is,
can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild -- it’s wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
"Done things" just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that nature renders?
(You'll never hear it in the family pew).
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things --
Then listen to the Wild -- it’s calling you.

They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their teaching --
But can't you hear the Wild? -- it’s calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There’s a whisper on the night-wind,
there’s a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling. . .let us go.

Summer here I am.

I am realizing that summer is here.

I get to have an amazing internship with the Arts council of Long Beach
I get to witness one of my best friend's marraige
I get to travel 3000 miles to NYC for a week of fancy living and eating
I get to dive into my art and breathe out an entire show for November
I get to live in my beautiful home, be near my family, and the beach
I get to embrace the wilderness and hike whenever I want
I get to enjoy each day if I let myself enjoy each day


Enough sulking and feeling bloated. I am going and living with all of my heart.

John Muir.. You knew what to do.

The John Muir Wilderness inspires and frightens me. I have only been there a couple of times but have a yearning to go...Now. I want to sit by a waterfall and lay in the tall grass. I don't want to be sitting on this blue couch complaining and wishing I would get my ass upstairs and paint. Sometimes I want to escape. Sometimes I want to feel small. Sometimes I don't want the limit of time. Sometimes I want to be a cliche. Sometimes I want to be wild, reckless, and free.

"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." - John Muir