this are notes from more than a week of events ...
again they are going to be a little scattered and incomplete sometimes ... but hey ... who really cares ... anway ... i've got pictures on my phone but I have to wait to get them off then you'll see them!
Ok so ...
let s flash back to the 12/23/09
It's 10:12 on the east coast of america ... but i'm in paris france where it's 4:12 am
i've just come home after a 5 hr trek to and through the underground tunnels of paris!
Dopeness at ground level! And I mean ground level as in ground water. We tread through the water thanks to 6 euro knee high rubber boots and faced the darkness with 4 euro 7 LED headlamps, lit the evenings jam session with free candles from rockstar cuz's house and the most expensive part of the 5 hrs experience were the 2 hrs spent lost ... can you say PRICELESS!!!
A mini-castle, clean ground water, gargoyle heads, drunk tour guides, home made liquor from spain, graffatti, battery powered guitar amps, tags that said "goonies, we live, and fuck you", 2 gated exits, the scream, desperado beer, wet socks, egyptians, a spur of the moment thought abut beating the tour guides ass for getting us lost, the beach, a redeeming trek to the exit, violent thoughts, few funny pictures on my phone and the remembrance of a christmas eve from a labyrinth of madness like i've never experienced before.
did i mention there was some incredible art down here!?!
no these aren't my pics ... but i have almost these exact pics on my phone camera!
ok so ... these were my thoughts immediately after the experience
but then i wrote this the following day ...
it's dec 25 ... christmas day ... i'm in paris
rock star cuzs' friends, Farmer& c-rock the tea walla!, were with us in the catacombs ... and they agreed that it was all a metaphor of life.
Rock star cuz described the event as a school friend trip that went wrong! kinda like the bus breaks down and your like "yea ... the adventure goes on" then you realize "damn we need the bus to get home!"
this is how i kinda saw the experience. We go deep beneath the surface of ourselves just for the adventure sometimes. To check out what's going on. Many times we're guided by the inspiration of someone that we don't really know. sometimes it's a parable, a quote, a mantra, a book, an idea ... but, in the end we make the decision. How we implement that decision is often largely influenced by the resources that are bought to the table by those that are closest to us. If we were to design & construct a car it still wouldn't run w/o the tires. Our friends are our tires. They have their rubber on the road and allow us to move in various directions. Good tires are important to a car for many reasons. They influence how far you go on a tank of gas and can stop your progress if they aren't durable. They also deal with potholes, bad weather and have to be aware of vandals too. So ... all that to say it's important to surround ourselves with people with shared principles that we trust and that are smart, visionary, fearless, balanced, guided, hard working, loving and creative. Well those are the standards for my people-my peoples! [in retrospect ... it was late ... I was tired. But it sort of made sense!?!]
Then there was christmas ... i'm not gonna go into my anti holiday rant ... i'm turning a new leafe for 2010 ... no i'm not celebrating a bunch of stuff but I will be more involved in utilizing time away from work to gather and enjoy friends and family.
A few days later i'm graciously waylayed by my homie retta who is visiting her sister her in paris fo the holidays and I end up back at the louvre. Yea, I went before & didn't say anything. It was just one of my adventures. And I was a little pissed because they had so many egyptian artifacts there. But ... this time ...
mona lisa
the napolean room ... the decadence is plantains!
so ... a few days after that ...
I go kick it with my homegirl welela ...
it was dope meal and a great convo that evolved into discussion on why brothers don't “woo” the sisters anymore. In the end it came down to a few reasons ... shift in social norms and expectations, easier access to women, increased variety, a shift in how we communicate, dissolving rites in manhood, decreased expectations in many women & as a continued to think about it ... men felt that they should get “woo'd” too. We watched a dope movie too ... well 4/5 of it was dope the cahpter that was in russian we didn't get ... cie la! Welela hella good peoples check her out!
I also connected with a film maker here in paris that did a documentary on the last poets ... it's a interesting piece because he got them all to come back together again. I'll tell you more about the film as we have more conversations. The real jewel in this connection is that this white dude educated me on the role that he and collective of other whites in paris we doing to support the black panthers but supplying them with a place to get away to if they needed. This dude is hella cool, played great jazz and & great vibe. You'll hear more about claude in the future too. Thanks baba umar for the connection!
Now ... i've been working w/ my homegirl ferricia on her creative process. Specifically on a song writing project but moreso on identifying patterns in her personality and her working process. She's hella talented! We're gonna make some things happen!
Then there is my dude romain ... i'm not even gonna let the cat out the bag w/ what we have bubblin' but ... this is MY DUDE! To be continued ...
so some of my random thoughts ...
today
amethyst above me
where i rain drops,
watched birds fly
i tell lies then fix them with truth
listened to youth
and made the sunshine
inhaled life
played pica boo w/ the moon
exhaled fear
and i found penny
AGAIN ...
i'm reminded about how much of a gift it is that I am even here. Thank you STERLING & ROCK STAR CUZ!!! The experience has been incredible. The people. The relationships. The sun rise. The food. The conversations. The insight. The sun sets.
Make time to do nothing ...
make time to enjoy silence
make time to be creative
make time to talk to your friends about things that make them happy (besides music, work, arts, entertainment)
Make time to talk to someone about your future
write down those things you don't want in your life ... cold them for a day than throw them away!
Write down the things you want ... and create reminders around you that inspire you.
Tell those close to you your goals and let them help you achieve them. Many of you know how I get down ... don't let your mouth get your ass in trouble! So think before you say something. If you tell me that you want stop smoking but ... and then i see you with a cigarette ... there's gonna be trouble.
We gotta support each other
music ...
metronomy
ok i'm fading it's 4 am
SHiNE
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