busking and the pitfalls of dutch rap

first european busking attempt today! after riding across town on "gypsy," (the rickety yellow casa robino bike) in an on-off-and-on drizzle with the chain falling off every 5 minutes, standing up b/c the seat is too high, i found a spot near one of the entrances to the central train station. i felt pretty pessimistic as people flowed by in both directions paying no attention in their rush. but by the third song, a few people began throwing small coins into my case, and soon i had a string of eager listners, a few 2 euro coins, 2 ten euro notes (!) and even 5 pounds. i played for about an hour before heading back to meet up with pax and sky, and raked in a grand total of just over 40 euros! very gratifying.

one guy asked where i'm from, and then "which state?" "virginia" "ah, a swing state!"

tonight, sky and i went to a squat for a hip hop and reggae show, a pretty friendly scene with plates of falafal and hoummous for 4 euro, lots of dreddy, punky, and just plain old dorky folks and some very very silly dutch rappers. just a bit too bouncy, and the language really is unavoidably inherently silly sounding. some awesome graffiti there, photos to come....

home

today started with marginally fruitful attempts to fix some of the casa robino bikes, followed by a trip to buy a new bike tire, fix the camera, and try and get local cell phones.

in the afternoon, sky and i met up with a couple of women associated with casa robino at a nearby market. lily (from australia) is working on a documentary about dumpster diving, and she brought along her (dutch)friend mindy. we arrived at the tail end of the market as folks were cleaning up their stalls. strolling up and down the long street, we poked in the garbage bins and chased abandoned sidewalk scores, loading up 3 giant bags with avocados, tomatoes, radishes, eggplants, carrots, starfruit, melon, pineapple, plums, and papaya. the Moroccan venders were very friendly, one even pointed us to a palletful of vegetables. some of the dutch folk were a little less generous, one even pulled the trash can away and slammed down the lid! we loaded up lily's bike paniers and walked back to casa robino. paxus and aisha, a friend of robins came over and we cooked up a giant feast.

its so great being in this culture again--the easy flow and comfort with international anarcho-hippy culture. its been awhile since i've been in this environment and i feel that dormant part of me waking up again. i love hosting people, and robin's attitude about this house is essentially communal: whoever is here is creating it together. so it felt totally comfortable and easy to take over the kitchen, rummage for spices, cook up a bunch of food, make tea...making me realize that my longing to root is not a desire to own my own house necessarily--the need is totally satisfied in being able to cook for people and host in this fluid way.

days 2&3

My second day in amsterdam got off to a late start, still dragged down by the jat-lag...sky and i took the tram to the star-pad on the other side of town. the plan was for me to hang out with willow for a few hours while they had some precious, star family adult time. willow is such a sweet and fun kid, and it was great to get a chunk of time with him. we headed over to nearby osterpark (east park), where he chased pigeons around for awhile with glee and abandon...then we went to the giant and luxurious playground there. it has an amazging suspended swinging teetor toter, a giant rope climbing structure, bike powered merry-go-round, huge sand-box, swings, slides...and a tennis court. the dutch really know how to make playgrounds. we hung out there for awhile, til it started raining and then headed back to the pad for a snack and some homeschooling.

later that evening, we all ventured out to a nearby anarchist squat for a showing of "The Battle in Seattle", a holywood-esque version of the WTO protest there in 1999. there was a big pot of soup and some bread there, and the room filled up with mostly black-clad and chain-smoking internationals. The film was certainly dramatic and had some live footage, though folks who were actually there have some criticism of this fictionalized account.

Heading home after some post-movie decompression with pax and hawina, we ended up staying up for a couple more hours with robin and anu back at casa robino. robin is the house papa/host and anu is a long-term guest there. The house is part of a hospitality network called bewelcome, "a culture crossing network that lets you share a place to sleep, meet up and help others on their way." There's a whole subculture of these hospitality networks, including couch-surfing....they had a spirited conversation about couchsurfing's increasingly corporate bend.

catch-up and amsterdam!

another whirlwind of a week...

the few post-landmark days in cville were great; i had the chance to connect with dream, brian and cassandra, and flame and that felt really good, to see myself in a new way and continue re-creating myself. i'm getting ever more excited to plunge into this c'ville community with both feet!

then it was back to TO for one night of frantic packing and off on saturday morning with ezra, driving up to Philadelphia to play a sunday wedding. we were staying with some really awesome folk, (friends of the bride/groom). they are 2 families sharing a huge awesome house in west philly, part of a 7 property land-trust. they pool their mortgage payments, taxes, and maintenance expenses. our host is a midwife, and her husband teaches business (focusing on progressive small businesses) at temple university. i picked their respective brains about doulas and about starting a co-op.

saturday night we collected madog and then hit south street for some busking. we were camped out in front of a kitchy-skeleton store which was a totally awesome back-drop, right next to the all night philly cheese steak place with a line around the corner.

we rocked out for about 20 minutes, with people eating up, dancing the jig and generally gettin' happy when the inevitable cop came by to shut us down. we moved on to the UPenn area where there was a college-freshman party in the streets goin' on... the wedding on sunday was just beautiful. it was at a botanical garden, small and fairly DIY. it was nice to see the philly jews again, that scene is so sweet and comfy. i teared up throughout the ceremony. dinner was delicious--sweet potato lasagna, kale, and kambucha at the bar! and we played a ROCKIN' hora, with multiple people up in the chairs and lots of hijinks.

and now, i'm in amsterdam! yesterday sky and i walked across the city. its so pretty and nice with big bike lanes, tons of little shops and dark, cozy cafes. the absence of chain stores and ads is very noticeable and the whole city has a peaceful, relaxed feel to it. i'm still struggling with jet-lag and general disorientation but its getting better. more to come...

whirlwind

i feel like i'm on fire. maybe its the chocolate almond coconut latte that i just consumed.........

i'm in charlottesville now, just back from the life changing and totally transformational landmark forum. i spent the weekend in baltimore, staying with a woman i'd never met, sitting with 100 other people for 13 hours a day, for 3 days straight. its hard to talk about what the forum "is". its easier to talk about what i got out of it.

What i got out of it is a transformed relationship with my family. i had the opportunity to renew and reinvent my relationships with my mother, father and sister. to express how important each of them are to me, how much i love them and that i'm creating the possibility of an intimate and involved relationship with each of them. i told my dad that i loved him, something i haven't done in over 10 years. i heard him say that he loved me, something i haven't heard in just as long. i cried through the whole conversation with my mother, and she was stunned, saying that it was the most amazing phone call she'd ever received. My sister seriously considered flying out to baltimore for my tuesday evening completion session, even in the midst of her tumultous life situation. of all the people in my life, i am particularly committed to standing for her greatness, and can see so clearly how much she would benefit from doing the work that i just engaged in at the forum. i feel so blessed to have the opportunity to really express to each of them how important they are to me, how much i love them, and to be able to reinvent my relationships with each of them.

I also got a renewed sense of ease with myself in the world and in relationships. i'm not "someone that people can't understand." People are just as afraid of me as i am of them. I can be a source of love, openness and compassion for people in my life, without fearing that they won't like me or won't understand me. and that's possible in part b/c of the renewed foundation of strengthened relationships with my immediate family.

and, i feel a renewed sense of and strength in my own power and possibility for what i can create in the world. i don't need to waste my energy worrying about small things, or create small problems for myself. i don't need to worry about getting a job that i hate to pay rent. i can take on huge problems, like helping people transform their lives by creating a healing and safe space for people to see possibilities in themselves and their lives. I am ready to dive into the work that Sky and I have been building towards for the past year: dedicating ourselves and our lives to creating change and new possibilities in the world around us.

We're starting to craft a slide-show presentation about our work and research of the past 6 months, pulling out the themes and concepts, communities and projects, our own trajectory through it all, where we stand now and what we're looking to create. We're forming an urban commune design council to pull more people into the process of creating a radical and cooperative community here in town. I'm starting to formulate a workshop based on The Work That Reconnects, inspired by Joanna Macy. The Work is a way of creating space for people to connect to and express the full range of emotional responses to the currenty state of life on this planet, to connect to the despair, anger, sadness, alienation that are inevitable responses. Facing this emotional reality allows us to see the interconnectedness that is the root of our despair, as well as fertile ground that this interconnectedness can be as a portal for getting in touch with the many possibilities for positive action and transformative reconnection that are possible. Its about seeing the power and strength we step into as a result of recognizing our connectedness to each other and to the possibilities that we can create.

i feel really excited to step into all of this.

you gotta check out this SNL spoof of the vice presidential debate--f'n hilarious, gosh darnit!

how to get to eastern europe?

here i am at the vegetarian festival. A woman from the Central Virginian took this picture and then wrote, asking if i'm a Twin Oaks resident!


Rob Breszny has instructed me to "stay alert for what i don't realize i need to know". in response to that, sky pointed out that my intuition is stronger than his, but i trust it less. so, my self-instruction for this next slew of adventures is to keep my eyes open and my consciousness fluid.

we're back in c'ville, sky flies across the pond tomorrow. yesterday was a long and good day--we worked our little tushies off at the vegetarian festival. we were running the twin oaks tofu booth, ironically enough. we passed out many tiny cups of ira's amazing greek tofu salad, bulgar tempeh pilaf, wild mushroom pate and tofu chocolate "cheese" cake. and ate lots of it ourselves. then it really started pouring and we holed up at the mudhouse, reading and computering til quite late. at the end of the night, we met up with rat--local activist and musician. it was great walking around and chatting with her, good inspiration for the community center. and for music. i really like her, she's super chill and very straight talking, and she railed against the patriarchy of orthodox jews.

somewhere in there, i got totally wired on coffee, kicking me out of my entrenched pms and sending my cells into vibratory shock.

i'm trying to finagle a way to get to eastern europe. i'm dying to go there, i want to learn music and dance the dances and sing, just soak in that culture. it seems ludicrous to go all the way over there and then stop at prague. any leads?