I cannot break form

good day

Tis the season

for cheesy holiday poems!!  :)))

Merry happy holidays
may there be
pleasure as you please.
And love on top of
mountains
and snow between
the trees.

In short I hope
that you are well
wherever you may be.
In time I hope
to see you soon.
Until that day
may there be peace!

Much love to the familia, all my homies in the 604 holler, be back soon for maximum shred, thanks for putting up with my loco-ness friends in Seattle, this next year's gonna be a banger!!  Time to make some moves :))))))

To all the readers of this, I thank you especially.  You don't know how much it means that there are random people hopefully enjoying this site.  I think its the anonymity that makes me so stoked and inspires me to share more.  I appreciate any comments you have to share with me!!  :)

Hope yall got some good christmas schwagg!!

Peace Love and Poetry!!

Sean

Prolific like Picasso

Went to the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum today and go the best tour from this little old lady.  She told us tales of Picasso's many lovers and offered up copious context to frame his paintings with.  Art is not simply decor.  It is in fact a moment.  With context removed it is easy to see a piece as simply hanging on the wall; not rooted in conflict or controversy.  As an artist I feel that removing context reduces the art.  That is not to say that some art is merely art for arts sake.  Obviously we cannot all grasp the reality of every artist at every moment they are creating.  As nice as ignorance is, I found it illuminating to hear our docent connect the dots in Picasso's life as it helped me understand his extremely large body of work (some say he created over 50,000 pieces before he died at the age of 91).

Someday I hope someone will care so much about the times we are in now and the art that is being created in the present.

I try to write something every day just like a painter does hundreds of studies before embarking on a masterpiece.  I try to take five photos, write a poem (force a haiku at the least).  So here I am forcing art upon you...may profundity abound!

I intend to be
prolific like Picasso
unless I die young

...more on that later

Natural Truth

Beauty as it comes...

it was pretty cold today.

An Old Poem from Peru

I wrote this a couple years ago and lost the book it was in.  While looking through a bunch of piano books tonight I discovered the little journal!!  I figured I should share some of these poems before I lose them again :))

There is snow in the Andes

above hills above mountains.

The wind swings the hammocks

and ice feeds the fountains.

Here I lay for a moment:

a blink in time's eye.

Writing poems for nobody

under cloud covered skies.

gotta get back there...soon

Some film shots to share from OMOR

Just put up one of my favorite photos on OneMonthOneRoll.com

http://www.onemonthoneroll.com/seattle-usa/the-easy-star-all-stars-burnin-bright

Check that site out.  Its slow now but it will be great in a short time.  Like it on facebook, follow it however you can.  It's taking off.  And I like hyping it because (not only am I a contributing photographer but) some of the photographers on the site are SICK!  There are some aussies posting pics of crazy rocks and a dump filled with laundry machines (wtf?) among other things, some Canadians, Americans, girls, boys, good, bad, photos blah blah blah just click the link its painless...

And that first photo is definitely my favorite multiple exposure success (mostly because I was handholding in a dark room with people dancing around me). The Easy Star All-Stars blew my mind, playing for over two hours, taking requests from the people at the show, and infusing us all with positive energy!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGU_JJroVms

Big tune!!

click on it

I just love how long the physical piece of film is and how dope the lights are...Holga's are a gamble, they force you into shooting shots for different reasons than you normally would shoot shots with say a 35mm SLR or a digital SLR...the aesthetics are different, the process is different, the final product is different.  

It's something you can just feel when you first take a look at your negatives, holding them up to the light or running them over a light board, seeing light pass through in different colors.  You can't just take back a click of the shutter like you can with digi.  12 shots is a whole different game than god only knows how many gigs your camera's flash card can hold.  Four possible permutations on the Holga, infinitely more with a jpeg and photoshop.  You must see something in your head before you take off the lens-cap with a Holga.

After a while your eyes just intuitively tune into situations where a successful exposure could occur.  But it takes your entire life to hone as you experience different cameras/lenses and light situations (i.e. flash/no flash, inside/outside, direct/indirect, etc.) Some photographers like to overcomplicate things with extra gear and whatnot.  What works for some does not for others.

For now two settings are a relief to me.  f8 or f11, 1/60th or bulb.  Effectively controlling light in concise parameters.  Either it works or it does not.

It all comes down to the essence of photography for me.  And that would be?

(in some deep way)

simply light!

!!  I love lamp  !!

Here's some more off OMOR.  Enjoy!

"Carb Loading" from Steve

http://www.onemonthoneroll.com/carb-loading

"The Tip 2" from Emily in Alice Springs.

http://www.onemonthoneroll.com/alice-springs/the-tip-2

Transcending Convention

It is as silly as it seems
Sometimes the world's forgotten me
as I have done to it
endlessly

the thoughts that I've got stored
inside my mind
are at a loss
(like memories ignored)
is that a lie
that you and I
are changing daily?

international wizardry
the parting of the seas
the ice the rain the snow the steam
this water is surrounding me
and it is not that I
do not feel the clean
simply I don't
believe

conventions
(like similes
or even rhymes in poetry)
are really lame.

Gravity, please leave.  And if we cut down all the trees? can we believe? that we don't need? anything more to provide the air that we all breathe?  And time and space we will transcend unto the underwater world where everything is wet (and clean? haha). And everything is wet when you're transcending there with me if you'd only just believe me please you got to please me please don't worry you dont need me I got coffee and tv or its beer or cigs or weed or drugs or rock or roll or other things...

Now there is something there that you cannot hold
and yet
you still believe.
I guess it happens
that things are easier to
live with in disbelief or doubt
or never knowing what could have happened

like the end of this poem
so prematurely
like a thought forgotten
innocently

Climbing things that shouldn't be climbed

a view from high

of cityscapes

towers scraping at the sky

without a light

no rope

no cape

clinging not to fall

drain pipes and

a rusty gutter

are all I have

to keep from falling

looser than I'd like

but then again

trust is conditional

atop a rainy roof

a fine view is afforded

then to slip back down

is not so smooth

for those who feel

faint hearted

hope and truth

both known by

fingertips

fumbling for a hold

until my feet

have found the ground

again

let's look up

for more!!

Hahahaha last night I got wasted at the Red Door's holiday bash (thanks to all down there, yall are wonderful!!) and decided to do a little solo night climb.  Freaked out about halfway up when the drain pipe I had been so foolishly relying on popped off the wall I thought it was secured to.  Oops.  When you're halfway up you gotta go for broke.  I rested at someone window sill, could see the glow of a laptop seeping through the blinds, and wondered for a second what they might think of me crawling up the side of their condominium.  Probably not too much.  Thankfully I found a better route and here I am. Being scared shitless really does give you some perspective...and sometimes a poem too :))

Remember what Dead Babies always say..."safety third, bitches!!"

Sean

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Was wishing I could write forever.
Words forever flowing.
Words forever going
places I will
forever never
know.

I fell asleep and dreamt instead.
a getaway inside my head.
A gate-way you should have
entered
instead goes by
unseen.

Reality comes back to me
sometimes when
(personally)
to me it seems
the world is
feeling kind of crazy.

In and through a different realm
wanderings of a million things
together bumping into one-
another no thing harmed
at least it seemed
to me to be
just
chaos
pure and simply
and I was in it and
still here I am and so
you are
so we be
[chillin]
together when I'm dreamin
shit that sounds
a kind of
creepy
if not idealistic at the least
my god
i mean
wow, please.

A moments rest from thought is fine
and so I pass the time
"Doing what?"
you just might ask
but don't ask me.

I am wishing for a thousand things
a million words or more.
A couple hundred feet of snow,
to cure the common cold,
to save the world from all of us
(myself included)
to put an end to war.
To save the starving children,
and grow myself some corn.

I am wishing just to fall alseep
so I can dream some more

:)

Withering Vines

Withering vines
that once held fruit
what are you to do.

The sun and snow
will come and come
and weathered you will be.



Gravity Rides Everything by Modest Mouse.
Good night music.

Sean

A kind of Thanksgiving

Some photos that may have fallen through the cracks (or maybe you've already seen em somewhere out there in the world :)

Vancouver in bLoom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCyUxxwXig

Hec Ed, Seattle

More tomorrow :))

Thanks for checkin it out!!

Sean

Happy 101 Bloggo

This is the one hundred and first blog I've posted.  Wow, never thought this would last that long.  And yet I'm still here on Earth, like all the other astronauts, looking at what remains of last night's full moon and wondering if it's gonna snow again tomorrow...

That's right, it snowed (and stuck) here in Seattle today.  It was awesome.  Lots of very happy youngsters frolicking about in hat and boots.  Too cute.

Here's a little poem for you all!

wirelessly we are all here

worry free and wandering

we see each other often

or as so we choose

to do as humans do

with virtue,

very virtually.

A soul connects-

connection lost-

as your call drops

conveniently.

(It's okay)

Must we be constantly

connected at all times

to EVERYTHING?

Why not focus on just one thing,

say pizza [whatever] or

humanity.

Turn a stranger to a neighbor,

spend time with somebody thinking,

listening, touching, loving

real life living things.

[I wonder what the earth thinks,

after all the time and change.]

If you feel this

then you feel it

and if not "it"

than some

other thing

like-

the last time you could feel a smile happening.

Like the warmth from a hug only best friends give

or shared energy from meditation.

Say something.
Calmly walk about.
Learn a new thing every day.

That poem is kinda weird.  Whatever.  The two hundred and twenty second post will be far superior I can assure you...so keep reading :))

Sean

The state of new music

I love fishing for new music.  There are so many websites out there these days that have audiences capable of blowing up good acts quick.  Traslation: bored bloggers and readers are shaping the musical landscape of our times.  Check out hypem.com sometime and realize that the site is merely a collection of a million other sites/blogs that offer up all sorts of tunes that are then streamed through hypem.  And hypem is just one of the gazillion sites lurking out there in the interweb.

At the same time, there are more acts than ever and considering anyone can make a youtube video these days, it's nice to have some sort of moderation (other than the search term "good music"...hmmmmm) from the dudes who sort through all those gazillion sites.  God knows they go through way more bullshit than gold.

But hypem isn't even the reason I got on here tonight.  I got on here to thank all the bit torrent fiends in the world.  You make it possible for anyone with access to the internet to download entire discographies (thousands of dollars supposedly) of just about anything.  And leaks, and screeners, and all that jazz. Amazing really.  Today we have access to wayyyyyy more that we can possibly listen to and everyone and their brother's in a band so we got more tunes too.

That brings me to new music these days...

Here are some goodies I haven't been able to get enough of...

The March release of the Gorillaz new full length Plastic Beach is off the hook.  I'm a sucker for fat beats and Snoop Dogg, so the first track blew my mind.  But then to go through all the genres that they do on the album is unreal!  Symphonic tracks into heavy hip-hop, eastern beats, goofy shit, poppy shit.  Pretty much the radio heads will love this album as much as I do.  It's pretty unoffensive, well produced, and a nice look at what the future of music might be like.  Contributing artists include Snoop, Mos Def, Loud Reed (!!), Little Dragon, De La Soul!!!  And this isn't live some Santana duet album BS.  The featured artists rock!!  Bobby Womak makes the song Stylo along with Mos Def (he KILLS it!!)



I love the live/electronic combinations Gorillaz tosses up.  And the mixing hp-hop with electro with rock is not the easiest task.  Yet Gorillaz does it effortlessly, and with whoever the fuck they want!!  Always have...hope to hear more soon!!

Another release I got onto a bit late was that of legendary Seattle band Minus the Bear.  One of my favorite live acts for a few years now, these boys work hard and have earned every bit of their success.  Their latest disc, entitled OMNI, is a step in a logical direction for the guitar fueled group specializing in electronic mayhem.  For fans of electronic persuasion this album will be a definite win.  It's fast and dancy but still trippy with random breaks that take you into the song and then rock you the fuck out.

Here's an in-studio video of a track off OMNI called "Into the Mirror"...one of their more radio friendly.  Slower but still with a classic MtB hook.



It's not their strongest album ever (I'd reserve that for Menos el Oso :) but it's still nice to know they're crankin out tunes people can dance to.

Cause isn't that what music is really all about anyways?

Thanks for reading!!  Hope you love the tunesssssss!!

Sean

ps- WHISTLER OPENS TOMORROW!!  Big day, big pow.  Be safe out there guys, we got a longgggggggggggggggggggggg la niña to take care of this year..  Having said that, as always, SHRED HARD.

A Haiku for Nellie

It's raining again.
Cloud cover: hundred percent.
Why not sit inside?

Better yet imma go find me a miniramp to shred :))

Nothin' like a rainy day

I feel the stoke comin' on!!  Put new tires on the car today.  Getting geared up for snow :))

It was raining in the morning and it was COLD.  That's a good sign.  Somewhere it is for sure snowing.

And I think I'll head North this weekend for some madness with the usual suspects.

I'm getting a Whistler pass and probably one for Steven's Pass too.

Since I broke my wrist I'm outta work for a couple weeks.  Blows ass.  I hate being broke.  And being broke and hurst blows even harder.  Especially when I was making cash like last week :/

I guess I'll just sit inside and drink more tea.  Listen to more music, maybe pull out the vinyl.  George Harrison's on now.

Last night I was playing something on the piano and it sounded for a second like this song by Joni Mitchell.  But of course I couldn't remember it.  And then once I did it was the night and I had to find my iPod and click through a couple of albums worth of tunes before finallyfinding it at the end of For the Roses.  It's called The Judgment of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Song) and the only part that sounds remotely like what I was playing is the seven note break with horns about a minute and ten seconds into the song.  The whole album is pretty good, imho.

This recording's from YouTube.  Joni talks about the song before she plays it.  Great live recording.  Raw music, acoustic emotion, background noise...I'm a fan.  The rest of the songs from the set are stellar as well.  Just her and a guitar or piano.  Super stripped down.  Super pure.



I gotta go make some more tea :))

Sean

One Week

One week to buy my Whistler Pass at a discount.  Obviously its a no brainer.  Shred five times and it pays off.

I'll prolly go more than five times five at least to Whis this season (or at least try :)

And now living 216 miles south of Whistler I have some closer options to consider.

Crystal mountain, Stevens pass, Snoqualmie with Alpental and more!!

And of course perfectly between Seattle and Whistler the behemoth mount Baker which collects the biggest dumps of snow in the PNW!!

Amazing.  I have too many options and not enough money to take em all!!

What would you do?

Shred hard always.

Sean

Deep thoughts are for another day

exceptional
the sky is blue
the sinking sun of indian summer
sets in your eyes

white dress
skin coarse with
goosebumps
birds fly over us

feet frozen
undercovers
we will heat them up

voices sweet like
hot caramel
warm as
morning's milk


That is another poem for no one :)

Sean

Big ol Trees

Mist lifted like
heavy stones
no longer will I wonder.

Fog beneath
green canopies.
Cedar saplings
reach ever higher.

Out of the unknown
towards the light.

When will we breakthrough?

Cedar Trees at UBC

One of my favorite fisheye shots I've taken.

Hope yall like it!!

Peace

Thursday night CAGEFIGHTINGGGGGGG!!

The forethought of innocence

forgotten in lust

a spring of natural beauty

are you lost?

Caught in a dream catcher

[staring at eyes]

you are woven with wonder

and I won't try

to even

under

stand

it.

I admire you like ripe pink hibiscus.

Your beauty's inspiring, your hand, may I kiss it away?

to many others

lovers

leavers, thieves, and more dream weavers

but for now a pure expression

just a poem [is like a bracelet]

only words [nice and silver]

You pass by on the bus every day.

Take you with me take me away

press you like a flower

anyways..

with me in

my back pocket

just

please don't fall

out- it happens more than I'll admit.

Forethought forgotten for the fact that follows.

Aquifer of pure unbled beauty.

It's Thursday night.  Up in Vancouver we used to have a poetry evening every Thursday at different houses.  It got to be pretty rad, lots of fresh thought and style, lots of people coming to share or just to listen.  Initially I was inspired by the workshop-like feel of the group.  We were a small group of friends and comfortable providing each other with honest feedback, critiquing and so on.  Much of what became lost as the group got bigger was not quantity or quality of works shared- to the contrary, new people brought new ideas constantly, and to admirable reception.  What became lost was the honest critique.  Where Aron or Charles would tell me a line straight up sucked.  I gladly returned the favors :)) As the crowds got larger there was less focus on poetry and more time for socializing.  Not that I'm a poetry purist, nor that I wasn't a disruption ever (haha), but I really value feedback from other artists.  I keep in touch with a number of writers in different places, sending work or reviewing, editing others'.  It's pretty fun :)  Feel free to share your thoughts with me.  Without any moderator blogs can get kind of crazy. Pretty much what I'm saying is:

Lemme know what you like so I can please you :)

(is what I wanted to say to the girl on the bus)

So0Oo0oOO0o I figured I'd post one sponateous one for the Vancrewver Crou!!  Miss you all, wish we could be together but while we're apart we can all get better :))  And let's hear it for THuRSdAy NiGHT CAAAAAGEFiGHTiNGGG!!  I do believe it was around this time last year that I returned from South America to a new incarnation of Cagefighting.  Remember the glory days of Cagefighting 2.0?!  Bring it back, keep it around, underground and on lockdown.  Most of all share your thoughts with strangers.  Fear not, the other isn't dangerous.

I wrote a haiku but was further inspired by a girls on the bus.  Happens...I forgot the haiku...but it was a forethought...anywaysssss, hahahaha

A breeze in the trees

Transparent leaves

do you see through me?

In the wind and sun you glow

blowing, falling in the

autumn-time.

Is it for the cold?

Or for the colors you can't

forever hold?

Float gracefully:

don't doubt death.

Eternally fall is.

Tribute to a waning moon.

The world outside tonight
- is bright.
Moon not suffocated by
Seattle City Light
above the port it beams.
Harvest time makes the
moment stronger.
We have enough for
everyone.
And light from stars
beyond our reach
exists superfluously.
What a joy it is
TO BE
fluctuating
energy.
My brain bends outside itself.

Here's an old photo from Bonsor skatepark in Vancouver.
The moon was so bright that night.
Some locals put up a fluorescent tube to light up the full pipe.
I remember it being one of those perfectly crisp fall evenings after a long day of school.

Click on the picture: it's a .gif :))

Study hard everyone!

Sean

Bright lights glow like

Flashing lights

strobe

beat drops

arms up fist pump

fake fogged air

smell of sweat

and

hot slick skin

everybody jumps around me

disturbance of

electric proportions

until the plug is pulled

keep the dark lights on

the flashes go off

mr. dj bows

he's headed for a clouded

crowded green room

"nice set" "good shit man"

He thinks, "thanks"

and forgets them.

Tomorrow is a new night to do it again.

Unite One under the lights at Nectar.

(click it for the real deal :)

They played an ill show that night, opening up for the highly acclaimed

Easy Star All Stars (who also rocked the joint).

I think I'll go to BC for the weekend for some partying, playful festivities, and friendliness.

See ya up north, eh?

Sean

A poem for hopeless romantics and lovers...

even though the lovers already have everything they need I suppose...

This one's by Edward Estlin Cummings.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

E.E. Cummings said, "If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little- somebody who is obsessed by Making."


There's more on Cummings on Garrison Keillor's Writers Almanac page.  It was the late authors' birthday on the 14th of October.  I think I read this poem to Ali once :))


http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2010/10/14


More poems on the way :)


Oh, and a completely unrelated photo!!  haha

weird. but cool shapes.

when the heck else am I 

ever

gonna post this photo?

probably never again

and yet

forever it will last

on interweb

:)

Recurring Dreams

Dreams keep happening.  This year could be one as it seems to be continuing endlessly.  It has been good wherever I have found myself, in new cities or on skis.  Making new friends, keeping old friends fresh, spending time learning, growing new leaves as the real ones turn color outside the open windows.

Happy birthday to me.  Thanks for all the love, friends.  Hope we all see each other at some point during this crazy year to come.

Love,

Sean

ps-from my dear friend, Claire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfugtAWxooU

10/10/10

What an auspicious day.

Sexy Girls

I was thinking the other day...."what is my blog really missing?"  I mean, I know it's random and some people complain that is sucks (haha, fair enough!) but what was it that I needed more of...

"Pictures!"  But that wasn't enough, you know.  Just more.  Pictures?

sooooooo I thought harder.

And then I was like, "pictures of sexy girls, duh."

Here ya go...

La bella Irena en Montevideo.

Wind in the hair = so sexy

Crazy momma's

Turquoise satin silk suit + baby wtf? = sexy?

oh, I forgot the fur hat...thhhhaaaatttt does it

Who doesn't love a chick who can shred?

Slaying the gnar = sexy

Bohemian Babes

Innocent look on girl with bowtie + moustache on hottie with the shades

=

sexy

Biddies climbing ladders are hot.

Plus she's got a top hat. Gotta luv dat.

Super cereal.

So I hope these hotties will boost my viewz by like,

a GAGIZILLION!!

dats right reread it.

A GAGIZILLION!!!!

Maybe more.

Got more from where these came from.

A Glass of Water

Condensation calmly clings
on a cold cup
dripping drops
slip smoothly down
the side like words
in some...
casual conversation.

The puddle on table is
something we can all share;
ignore it, add to it,
wipe it all away.

"Can I have a glass of water?"
"Yes sir.  Yes, you may."


I find poetry so refreshing :))  I hope you do too!

Still sunny in Seattle, late summer's the best part.  On top of my things to do list are more photos, more music, more stars, mo money, and more bloggage.  Lo siento por poco palabras.  October is a great month.  Nice transition from summer into winter as the fall turns the leaves.  I turn 23 this year on the 12th of this month.  Cool a prime number, right?  Haha.  As a Libra I enjoy fall, it's kind of the equalizer between warm and cold weather months.  Truth is I love all the seasons, haha.  During the winter months some friends complain of the rain and get SAD (seasonal affective disorder).  I say get skis and get happy; if it's raining in the city it's snowing in the mountains.  As skiing tails off around may or june biking starts back up.  Then summers here and theres no rain warm lakes and forests gah its so good!!  Best time to ride a road bike for me is the fall. Crisp air, cool breeze.  You're workin out if you're biking so as long as it's not raining too hard it's nice.

Yay.

Been busy lately.  made it back up to Canada for a couple of plays with my buddy Ben WHIPPLE!!  And hung out with my homies Amine, Nimmer, and Charles (shout-out to Weird'eaux in the NoiZ Community!!)  Now I'm back in Seattle workin n chillin.  Maybe get to play some bike polo tonight, who knows :)))

I slack so hard on this blog I feel bad.

I might just start posting little tings as I go along

...we'll see ;)

Peace for now!!

Sean

ps- an unrelated photo :)

En corral con cuero

Waiting

I feel these days that I truly am a professional waiter.

Made $68 today waiting tables.  Easy work, a bit stressful, relatively fun, and I get paid to do it.  I was thinking about how funny the title of "waiter" really is.

My entire life has been about doing things, not sitting around doing nothing.  Certainly not waiting for anything.  And yet the best paid jobs I've had have required no real intellect and little physical work from me.  Not exactly a strong demonstration of industrial tendencies.  I stand around and wait.

I make tips.  People give me money based on how they're feeling, how well the service was, did I forget the silverware, was that a fork with my creme brule, no straw in the soda, forgot to ask if they wanted dessert, didn't put lemos in the water, soup was too hot, coffee was to cold, blah blah blah blah blah.
Some people just don't tip.  Fair enough.  It's your money unless you give it to me...

People ask me why I'm not "doing something with my degrees" or "getting a real job" or "doing anything with my life" (thanks Dad, jokes).  I am.  University teaches you how to think and it gives you a taste of reality with a larger dose of theoretical bullshit.  I am merely wandering different paths, figuring out which one will be the best.  I have time, so why not wait.

Investments are often times about waiting.  They develop over time, prices rising and falling with the times.  Five years is nothing.  University doesn't speed up real life experience.  It's not a time machine.  When you get out the world turns just as fast and classes start same day next year too.  Invest some time in being free and open minded, thinking about the future but not too far ahead.

Waiting for now is good.  I have been trying to live more in the moment and realized the other day at work that waiting for good tips is just that- handling situation moment by moment.  Each is unique, be creative, solve the problem, collect a dollar, and move on.

My schedule is bomb too.  I have tons of time off which allows me to hang with friends, play music, go to late night shows, bike after work, and skateboard more (the pipe is sickkkkkK!!) :))

I think I'm going up to Van again this weekend to see the amigos.  Can't wait.  That crowds always a good time.

Peace love and no flies in the soup,

Sean

Back in Van

Vancouver's always got its charm.  Don't know how or why or when I'm going to get back there but I'm back again for a minute maybe longer.

A girl at Tim Hortons today gave me a red pen when asked if she had one.  Super Canadian, eh?

Blinking green lights
rainy streets
Busses rolling by.
Coffee in a café costs
3.40 Canadian dollars.
Yuppies mingle more than cars
smoke billows out
back allies.

Listening to some Creedence Clear Water Revival at a friends place right now.  "Looks like we're in for nasty weather."

"That was fucking good,"

I kind of want some more.

Something Has Been Lost...but I thank you for finding me :))))

I lost my little magical book of thoughts at one of the best Bumbershoot days I can remember.

Something's lost but something's gained.  Right?

Maybe someday in the distant future it will reappear when I need that stupid poem written around that pressed poppy most.

When on earth will I EVER need that poem?  How about today?  I got nothin.

I got somethin else though...

To all my loyal followers, thanks for one thousand views (since I put up that awesome counter).  And thanks to Will Atlas most for hooking me up with the counter :)

It gives me some weird sense of wellbeing knowing that I have a lone reader in Vietnam;

that as of today one hundred and sixty nine people in Iceland have been keeping up on my efforts (wtf Iceland! Thanks? Way to go? I love you all?);

that there are sixteen randoms reading in from Japan.

It's crazy.

Someday I hope to stumble upon your random blogs and visit you in your random countries.  Nice to know the world is watching me (even if it's from behind the safety of a screen).

Hope you all like something here.  I definitely don't expect everyone to like everything I ever put up on this page.  But even if you liked something, thanks for liking it.

I do it all for nobody in particular.

Tell your friends, your mom's and dad's, your friends' mom's and dad's.  Someday we'll all be famous :))

Input is always welcome.  Comment, "like" shit, email me, give me ideas (one can never have too many).  I'd love to hear what y'all think of this madness.

Here's to another thousand views!!

Much love,

Sean

A Daydream I had at work...

So I was at work standing around at seven or so in the morning yesterday and no one was coming into the coffee shop.  I started daydreaming and soon fell into my favorite theme of travel.  I always tend to wander to the ends of the earth (so to speak).  Or of my mind; I quite like it there on the edge of control or complete lack thereof, sanity/insanity, old/new, urban/rural, good/bad, clean/dirty, water/land, life/death.  Sometimes I feel like we are always trying so hard to live between the words of these dichotomies.  Like we wanna be kinda crazy.  But not CRAZY.  Like we wanna drive really fast but we got airbags.  Like we're gonna live in the suburbs when we grow up because the woods are dark and scary but the bright lights of the city burn our eyes so on we drive.  We are constantly adjusting, never trusting ourselves with too much of anything...even if its free.

I think perspective can be gained in our journeys from edge to edge.  A lot of people are alive but not living.  Likewise some dead live on.  Make the mundane to be extraordinary and live it every day.

I've never been to Costa Rica.  A lot of people tell me I should go.  Sounds far away.  I would love to.

Costa Rica
Me voy al fin de mundo
para descubrir
que conozco
Para ver el mar
y hablar con las olas.

Some Place
I am going to the end of the earth
to discover
what I know
To look at the ocean
and to talk with the waves.

Let's see what this next day holds...

Sean

Super secret mini half-pipe somewhere in a small town north of Seattle :))

So my friend Andrew leaked a photo of what looked like a mini-pipe the other day on the Facebook.

It looked cool, something some kids in California might build in their free time in the sun.

Next day I a fellow skateboard buddy of mine and his girlfriend

walked into my restaurant while I was working.

He mentions that he and his girl built a 4 foot tall mini-pipe in her backyard.

Later that night we got our shred on.

This dude rips pretty hard, even on a min-pipe.

He's a self proclaimed "non-skater" and says he and the girl built the pipe

so she could get better at snowboarding.

Its all top secret for now but hit me up and I might show you where it is.

Depends on what you got to offer...

I hear beer works exceptionally well :P

So I've bought a new skate and already started donating skin to the single ply.

More layers to come, it's gonna be pro.

By the end of the month I should be able to get over the coping :)

It'll be a while before anything like me being in one of these photos...

Until then,

Peace, love, and skateboarding.

Sean

Previous Adventures

This seems kind of backwards.

But here goes:

Where to today, Charlie?

Dead Ford on the other side of the street.

That street being the Panamericana somewhere in Northern Chile.

Contemplated buying the junker for about two seconds.

Then Carlos and I got back on the bus for fifty hours straight.

Got off in Buenos Aires.

Alger, WA

A little travel poem I wrote the other day for other rolling stones...

Clouds rise and

break the ashes

brake lights light

the empty highway

-I wonder

what lies beyond us.

The truth I

seek approaches

as the miles

pass by the

minutes time

arrives

I'm in Vancouver.

Home is many places

I love people and

their faces

I love people more

than places

I love,

wherever I am.

Sean

Bicycles and beer both are bueno

brap brap brap

the signal of a start

a race dowhill on bicyles
with friends
I'll never know

It is not that I
don't want to

it is just that
destination that defines
the times that we are in

some solid thought
forged freely for a million fires
burned into the wood
the waste of paper
justified by the other side of thinking.

All of that aside this race that I did ride
was fast and fourtunatly for me
ended at a beerful party

women booze and bicylces
summertime sublime

I wonder if the end will come
naivety is bliss
not real

I know I should
know better but
reality is bummer

For another day to come, I write...

Te Echo de Menos Uruguay

I miss moonlit nights wandering around on the rambla...asados every Sunday in the middle of the street...the glass roof on the house that we'd open when we smelled summertime...the music that we made and the parties that people came to...

I miss the dirty streets, you know here they're all too clean for me.  I miss the ways of living that I fall into when I live in Spanish.  I miss the clash of culture, architecture, and the days that ran one right into another and before I knew that it was over...

I miss my German friends who lived with us in the hostel.  I miss that big brown door and the ill-lit marble stairs that I fell down more times that I can count.  I miss the spiral staircase, Seba's room, and the roof above.  I miss my papa, Pepe and Uruguays new presidente.

Don't worry I'll be back but not for long you'll have to miss me.  I cannot feel your spirit glow as I lean into kiss you.  You musn't cry or fuss about, a minute soon is over.  And all we've to do is move along, I think we're finally getting closer.

The storm that I can't see.

The rain that I can't feel.

The thunder I can't hear it yet.

But the pressure I can smell.

The wind is blowing our clothes off.

I'm waiting for the rain.

I see bright lights

from miles away.

I'm waiting for the rain.

I'll be back again,

sooner than later,

with new friends

to share with old ones.

Te amo seba y sam y lukas y alvaro y pepe y patricia y

las dos marianas y noelia y emil y ari y roly y todos los pibes!!

Siempre comes bananas.  Son buenassssssssss!!!

Hasta luego, buenas noches, y paz.

Siempre,

Sean

Finally the Taj Love-All's Funkadelic Finale

Over the past six months I have been fortunate enough to live in and out of a house in Vancouver that the world has come to know as the Taj Love-All.

Everyone has been welcomed, the door has always been open, and we tenants always understood from the start that one day the end would come, the building would be demolished and it would be up to us to keep the spirit alive.

I fell pretty safe saying that none of us who lived there knew just how profound of an impact the Taj would have on our community in Vancouver.  The art that has been conceived there, the music that has been written, re-written, and recorded there, the magic that has happened, has blown all of us away.

I remember writing about this place months ago while still in Peru, dreaming of my eventual return to Vancouver and wondering nervously where I'd be living.

I got Gaelen's closet, and for that I am eternally grateful.  I'd like to think that some of Sam and Will's wisdom rubbed off on me as I lived with them for a few months on and off before heading to Whistler, and then back to Seattle, returning all too often to interrupt their productive academic careers.  Charles and I wandered around in our heads and everyone painted pictures and played music daily.  I experienced some of the best growth in my creative career there.  And this, after one of my best adventures to date in South America.

At times I felt as though I was stalling.

Now I know I wasn't, I was just soaking it all in.

I got the chance to surprise the boys a couple times last week, dropping into Vancouver for some poetry on Wednesday and then for the grand Funkadelic Finale on Saturday.  The last dance for the Taj.  It couldn't have been better.

Here are a few shots of the place at the end of it's existence.

It has been a trip and a half.  We lived the dream.

We still do, don't forget that.

We threw some epic parties.

We all enjoyed ourselves and each-other.

I await the day when I can call another place with such spectacular energy, "home".

I can't wait til someday I can throw parties like we did.

And I'll invite you all, just like we used to at the Taj.

The door will forever be open.

More stories wait to be written.

"Mother Music"

by Ciann Lochlainn

Beer.

Always somewhere in the house.

This time in Granville Island

Keg form

:)

Photo by Alban DeGrully

Alban picks the perfect parking spot

A day for adventure in Van

I posted a picture of this sign board a while back.

It always says the most motivating things.

"Don't wait to have a good day- make one"

And the blueprints for the "Proposed Residence at West 51st Ave and Marguerite St."

RIP Taj-Loveall

We love it all.

The last week has been a busy one for me.

The art show that the house turned into was wildly successful and I'm glad I got to check it out.

Lots of good stuff from local artists.

Can't wait to have another one.

It is up to us to keep this community alive.

I think we're up to the task.

To all my roommates at the Taj, I love you all.

Thank you for some of the best times of my life.

Thank you for the endless inspiration and guidance.

To all others who know of the Taj, keep it close to your heart.

It is a very special place, with very special people.

You are one of them.

More goodness to come,

Sean