On Desire

…and basking in beauty, that’s the summer of 2011. Hello World has been beached (blossomed) for a solid year following her crippling injury 30 miles north of Chicago that ended our 2010 expedition.

She’s communing with the flox and vetch across the street, waiting for repairs. Patrick and I are converting a storage shed into a workshop and that’s where she’ll be before the snow flies. I’ll mend her over the winter.

Meanwhile, she’s watching over another exploration of sustainability – the Lauren di Scipio memorial vegetable garden.  I’ve followed the weed free (layer cake) method – with commercial organic soil in some beds and composted horse poop from Willy and Marijke Church in others. Unfortunately, the entire plot is shadowed by the backyard bluff and misses most of the morning sun. The corn patch is growing in a wedge shape, plants are progressively lower the closer they are to the bluff. There couldn’t be a clearer demonstration of solar power.

So what’s the prognosis for Around Lake Michigan, Search for Sustainable Civilizations? Will there be another expedition? What about posting movies from the rest of the 2010 expedition? What the hell has Dan Kelly been doing for the last year?!

After the 2010 expedition ended, I decided to leave NYC and return to Michigan full time. I enjoyed the summer on Crystal Lake, intent on posting the expedition movies and evaluating the project. The abrupt end of the sailing may have been more discouraging than I was able to admit, my passion for the project waned and… I got distracted.

In August, documentation of Gretchen Eichberger’s American Document flowed into discussions about starting a performance company, which ultimately triggered a traumatic misunderstanding. Though our friendship has bounced back, we’ve since steered clear of any significant collaborations.

In September the lads and I joined my brother Mike for a trip down the San Juan River in Utah. My no jet travel protocol and recent ALM experience prompted me to do a little trickstery critique of James Weston’s Africa documentary in November.

Speaking of James, my experience with Mykl Werth’s partner dance methodology started an extensive exploration of how Mykl’s classroom technique could be translated to video. We started in October but by the spring of 2011, disagreements with Mykl about the business model ended the project.

Also in September, the Trickster Pictures motion graphics show reel was re-activated, featuring work by myself and the Bear Lake Kelly brothers. We posted Version 0.9 in May of 2011.

From October 2010 – March 2011, I taught Tai Chi at Studio on Main in Frankfort, which Patrick and I have since moved to the house. Joe Cissel, Patrick and I were also teaching ourselves combat mime for most of the winter.

In the spring, I conned James into forming a production affinity group, the Michigan Movie Makers. After the first meeting, James was off to film school in Montana,  but fortunately a slew of other local production VIPs have stepped into the breach. M3 had a presence at the recent Traverse City Film Festival, and I ended up volunteering for the TCFF video team and helping to edit a video for the Awards Ceremony.

The inventory of distractions wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention the house I’d neglected for the last 6 years. The furnace was toast, skylights leaking, etc. Still some stabilization required before real weather returns.

In summary, in the fall of 2010 I made a commitment to focus on current projects and not start any new ones. The Gretchen and Mykl dalliances were definitely new business – and they both tanked. M3 is also new business but has been justified as support for my relocated production presence. The other initiatives were arguably old business and have reached various stages of completion. However the two most important pre-existing projects – Daughter of God and Around Lake Michigan – have not been touched!

I haven’t been eating lotus only, progress has been made on various fronts and life is good. I even have a steady girlfriend and the possibility of an instant family.

But… I’m done with distractions. Now let’s be a laser beam, it’s time to make my movies. Since DOG has been on the back burner the longest, it’s first in the queue.

ALM is right after DOG. If we count the reconstruction of Hello World this fall, ALM will be happening concurrently to some degree. The next expedition of ALM will have to be re-thought if it’s going to accommodate sailing, movie making and distribution all at once. After Fukushima, I’ve been thinking about all those reactors I sailed by. What chance does a powered down civilization have surrounded by nuclear bombs? 10,000 years of toxic threat seems pretty daunting, maybe ALM needs a tighter focus.

Premise

Climbing high above a menacing mega-weather system, the VIP passengers aboard the Execu-jet attempt an escape to gentler climes, anticipating warm backrubs and frosty cocktails. Hubris! Even the mighty kerosene sucking turbo engines cannot forever loft such a heavy burden of sin! The weighty karma of their own greedy excess, their wanton spilling of carbon into the atmosphere and flippant sabotage of the global life support system drags them down. As if judged by the ancient gods, a bolt of rogue lightning strikes! Down, down into the swirling siphon perhaps to ditch in the flood waters or be smashed into jelly upon a mountain side. Fin.

Climate Change is a spin off of my Power Down PSA.

When my pals James and Jamaica were invited to document a travel boondoggle disguised as right livelihood, I felt compelled to whip up an editorial video. This didn’t stop the travel or even jam the hype, but I’m glad I spoke up. I’ve since been contacted by others who were also annoyed by the project’s premise, so at least I’m not the lone curmudgeon.

<digression>

Is it possible to carve out a profitable niche in “green” industries and services? Can we convert our environmental debts into the comfortable currency of convenience and excess? How can we repair the global life support system if we’re not ready to abandon some familiar habits? Clearly, what we’ve been conditioned to think of as good and proper just isn’t. Hamlet, you have drunk your death.

I hear coffee enemas are good for you, but sucking the stuff down daily ain’t, period. Shipping beans or any other commodity around the world certainly isn’t healthy for the planet – check this container ship presentation. Riding your bike to work every morning will never make up for your vacation jet flight. If you’re going to process organic food, pay local growers more than California growers. Be on guard against activist arrogance – we can’t trade our good works for privilege. Beware of environmental leaders with large families, they need to hustle to feed all those kids. We’ve got real work to do and willful ignorance isn’t helping. I’m willing to be somewhat diplomatic and gentle in explaining the situation, but to those who assert their personal agenda over global survival, watch out.

</digression>

I shot the jet footage at Cherry Capital Airport and wanted to wipe out the plane’s registration numbers so I wouldn’t need a release. It was unlikely that the owners of the jet would gang up with the boondogglers and retaliate, but better safe than sorry. Another job for After Effects! I mucked my way through and the results were… good enough!

Unmarked plane, ready for a rendition run

When I was stabilizing the footage for the registration erasure, I wondered how the jet would look without it’s background. Weeks later, I was refreshing my roto chops with Pete O’Connell’s tutorials and needed some footage to practice with. The jet seemed ideal. After a rough roto extraction of the jet from the airport, I played with new backgrounds, including a trippy swirl that seemed to suck the stabilized jet in. That sketch became the basis for Climate Change.

Rough roto and the original vortex

The difference between a rough and a refined roto turned out to be about 3 days more work. The new roto tightened up the edges and wiped out the landing gear.

I also added a strobe flash, based on strobe from the original footage.

Lightning strikes are a bit of cliche, but so are apocalyptic images generally. Never mind that the plane is flying above the weather system, gimme some of that special Hollywood sauce! Extensive experimentation with various plugins eventually led to Sapphire’s S_ Zapto for the lightning and S_Glownoise for the dancing glow of rain on an electrically charged fuselage.

Jonathan and Patrick (experienced 3D modelers) both suggested that the plane’s movement was unrealistic, while James Weston (airplane pilot and flight instructor) was fine with the movement. Jeff wanted me to loose the rain streaks, he thought that broke the shot. The feedback was all over the place, so I decided to not make any changes. Maybe it is a little over the top. Jonathan thought the scene would work if it were pushed to be either totally over the top or totally realistic. I’ll ponder that when we plan the next release.

“We do big things. From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That’s how we win the future.”

… and don’t forget a heaping helping of genocide on our own frontiers and the overthrow of a slew of democratically elected governments where there’s stuff we want, like Haiti, Iran, Congo… Do we really need to “win the future”? Winning is fine for games like chess, soccer and Wii but it doesn’t really scale up to the global, we’re just too interconnected.

I came out of class late last night, and the rhetoric of returning America to her former dominance was all I heard. Phawg!

Play movie for computer, phone or youtube

An ALM inspired public service message about giving up jet travel, whipped up in response to a regional fund raising effort that seemed inherently contradictory. The more I learned the more I felt compelled to speak out. The catalytic event was the release of a video by musicians May Erlewine and Seth Bernard on their kickstarter site.

Several aspects of their project appear problematic, but I’ve focused on the environmental impact. I’m down with Awakening the Dreamer, a movement to realize a socially just, environmentally sustainable and spiritually fulfilling human presence on the planet. These three outcomes are inherently linked, achieving one at the expense of the other two is no achievement at all.

There are certainly bigger fish to fry, why critique local activists and artists? Who elected Dan Kelly the arbiter of worthiness?

Folks disagree on how dire our environmental situation is, but it’s pretty clear we’ve got to make a change. Transparency and open communication are critical to deciding what that change should be. If we artists and activists can’t figure out how to do transparency and communication within our extended local tribe, how can we expect anyone to figure it out?

I don’t know many of the principle actors personally, but I am aware of their worthy efforts in the past. For my part, I just spent the last couple of years searching for artifacts of future sustainable civilizations. Having sailed a 16 foot catamaran 600 miles Around Lake Michigan, I’ve got some unique information to share especially with regards to travel.

I’ll be posting on youtube after a bit more polish.

I tested my PSA yesterday – me doing a talking head with ALM b-roll. It’s got potential. This morning I simplified the narration.

I am Dan Kelly

In 2008 I was invited to sail around the Hawaiian islands and make a movie about sustainability. Getting to Hawaii usually means flying – and jet flight generates lots of carbon. Documenting low impact lifestyles while having a big impact myself – that didn’t make sense. So I decided to stay home and make the movie right here, in Michigan.

sync sound
opening of ALM

In fact, I haven’t flown on a jet since. This summer I visited my brother for a trip down the San Juan river in Utah, a round trip of over 4000 miles, and it was Amtrak and cars the whole way.

river trip montage, floating

Flying on jets is probably the most environmentally damaging American behavior. If we’re concerned about climate change then jets should be the first thing we give up.

video of “on jets” calculation

I love to travel – adventure is my middle name. There’s so much to learn from other people and cultures. Maybe we can even help the folks we visit.

whoa! shots, that suckers coming right at me
http://ondesire.com/story/09-09-28_ritch_branstrom/01.html, carol

But trying to do good deeds by flying to far away places seems an obvious contradiction. We don’t need jets to have adventures or be of service. Wondrous discoveries await within 200, 20 or even 2 miles of our front door. Plenty of people need love and support in our own home towns.

(montage of more sailing, arriving on beaches, characters, town signs)

We are all responsible for each other, for our common survival. The choices we make now determine what will happen to us and to our extended family on earth. Jet travel is not a responsible choice, it messes up the global life support system we all depend on.

earth animation

let’s live fully, pay attention and power down

black with text, then “resources”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_and_the_environment

http://www.ondesire.com/ search for “jets”

I’ve been away from ondesire.com for a couple of months, reconstructing my land based life and recovering from an NYC exit. Let’s return now to the Around Lake Michigan archives for further extraction and posting. I’m starting with a PSA exploring the ills of jet travel. ALM is a search for what’s useful, the artifacts of future sustainable civilizations. Rather than look at what is wrong and complain, ALM explores what might be right, what seems to work. Explaining why something works may require contrasting it with what doesn’t.

There’s a local effort underway to fund extensive jet travel, ostensibly for good works on the other side of the earth. Certainly the organizers mean well, but on the balance they’ll probably do way more harm than good. Having recently sailed hundreds of miles in an open catamaran, I’m in a unique position to comment, to offer some perspective on travel choices. Here’s a first draft of my narration.

Two years ago I was invited to sail around the islands of Hawaii and make a movie about sustainability. Getting to Hawaii usually means flying on a jet plane – and that’s a huge carbon footprint. Talking about the low impact lifestyle while having a big impact myself – that didn’t make sense. So I decided instead to stay home and make my movie right here, in Michigan. In fact, I decided to give up jet flight in general. This summer I visited my brother for a trip down the San Juan river in Utah, and it was Amtrak and cars the whole way.

Flying on jets is just about the biggest environmental impact we can have as Americans. Trying to do good deeds by flying to far away places is usually a contradiction. Do the ends justify the means?

I love to travel – adventure is my middle name. There’s so much to learn from other people and cultures. Maybe we can even help the folks we visit.

We don’t need to fly in jets to have adventures or be of service. Wondrous discoveries await within 200, 20 or 2 miles of our front door. There are plenty of people who need love and support in our own home towns.

If we want to help people in China or Africa, we can send checks to reputable organizations already there. If we want to make new friends on the other side of the earth, we can reach out through social networks, telephones and… wait for it… posted letters.

If we traveled around the world without taking a single jet, we would have a richer and more immediate experience, make more friends, have many more adventures and probably be a lot smarter after.

We are all responsible for each other, for our common survival. The choices we make determine what will happen to us and to our extended global family. Jet travel is not a responsible choice, it messes up the global life support system we all depend on.

live fully, go slow, power down

Day 5 was the second and for real launch. June 1st was the official day of getting Hello World into the Big Lake and starting to sail but the truth was we weren’t ready. A few days of puttering around in Bear Lake and Beulah and then 6.5 hours organizing and prepping on Arcadia beach got us there. This short 3:33 segment gives a taste of Day 5 and Day 6.

10-06-05 Ready to go for real, Arcadia to north of Portage Lake, Michigan (computer, phone)

With ALM, I have three basic flows for telling the story – raw video, motion graphics and posts (text). Though I wasn’t as faithful with imaging everything, I was fairly thorough in my writing. I captured details that I certainly would have been forgotten now. The posts are ready made narrative. It’s another voice, a different Dan, another processing perspective.

What stories do I want to tell, what is the story? Are details like my struggle with Wordbooker worth telling? This geeky stuff might be trivia, but if ALM is about learning how to do a project, how to be low impact and effective, if it’s about an open source approach then these details could be the components of a future epiphany.

The details I choose to include reveal my opinion of what matters. What’s most important and what’s next most important? Including the disaster details means I can turn around and talk about what did work…

“The best gear (approach, attitude) is often not mentioned because it’s never part of the problem, it’s never a cause or contributor to trials and tribulations. Rather, good gear is an invisible assumed element of every solution. Here’s my roster of invisible stuff.”

Now we’re into collaborator territory. This could also make me a field testing force to be reckoned with. The question is – is grabbing collaborators part of my main theme(s)?

I can also bring the blog right into the movie as screen capture while narrating.

Tangents aside, there’s an immediate goal here – to make a first pass on the video, to post it. To revitalize the project and find out what it is, who’s on board. Can there be an online following between trips? How does that work?

Another tangent. Recently I saw Dave Hart and we had a great time just hanging out. When I think about philosophy of projects I am reminded of an argument we had about cam chocks for climbing protection, back on the South Manitou boat when he and I weren’t getting along so great. I gave Roger Bonnet’s argument that cam chocks were overly complicated, expensive poser gear. I can’t remember why Dave liked cams – maybe because they were a sort of one size fits all solution that ultimately reduced the amount of metal (and weight) on a rack. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t know about climbing, the basic argument was simplicity vs complication. Both of us felt probably felt like we were arguing for simplicity.

Simplicity will emerge as one of my principles of preparing for and approaching a challenge, but my idea of simplicity has to be clarified, rigorously polished until it’s perfectly obvious.

What this all helps me to understand is that I’m ready to take another whack at the index cards and sort the main themes of the project. It’s a great day, except for this burning pain in my adrenals. But that’s another story.

Sailing from Elberta to Arcadia on Day 2 was much easier than getting from Point Betsie to Elberta on Day 1. In this episode, I discuss the plan to beach Hello World and run some errands while still within range of the home base, recap Day 1, ramble about where the water comes and marvel at the miracle of solar power.

10-06-02 Elberta to Arcadia, Michigan (computer, phone)

Day 33

Perfection? The kingdom of god is spread upon the earth and man does not see it. Someone to tumble with in this grass would be sweet but as far as solo moments go, pretty near perfect. In tree shadow on sloping grass, facing the water and Hello World tugging on her can. So many other boats, most of them with masts! Behind me the great city yawns and rumbles with AM bustle.

Hello World is so low profile as to be nearly invisible, like a bigger boat that sank. Besides the buzzing and piping of birds, I hear hundreds of masts clanking against thier shackles, the accidental bells of an unplanned devotion. Each sail boat is a place of practice, a temple to the available free energy of wind. Hello World came right into Monroe Harbor under this energy, probably she’s the only boat who did. The rest manuevered to their cans with petrol motors. Out on the Big Lake, they sail.

All projects are test projects. I wonder about ALM, certainly a movie will emerge from this, but am I just setting the stage for a future scheme?
Much of ALM works, but I’m having problems with posting and sharing video. That’s kind of a crucial component. “Look at me I’m traveling” and “here’s what happened today” are not enough of an outcome to justify all the effort and expense. I’m living pretty minimally granted, but I want to offer more than just reporting the trivia of my admittedly unusual life.

Doing this project, I feel like an envoy of destiny, one foot stepping into an incredible possibility, an inevitable present that boggles. Are we really going there? Are we really getting in accord with the momma? I guess by dreaming it, by dedicating a summer to it, I am bringing it forth.

Yes the social aspect matters, it’s gotta make sense. Video and blogging are somehow integral, even if they are ineffective, if hardly anyone is paying attention. The ritual of outreach is what this is about, imaging the ideas flowing out and finding minds, delighting and inspiring. If I act in good faith, eventually the reality will catch up to my dreams.

Hello World is just left of center

A column of Segways passed my shade, surreal

Day 30

Down at the beach with Jeni and Nancy to open my wind window. Steve came jogging by and they introduced us. He’s working at the steel mill and said that before US Steel bought it and nixed everyone’s pensions, it almost became a worker cooperative. Later he returned with his wife Randy with some sweet arrowheads that he had made! He gave me the pick and I immediately snatched the rainbow obsidian, what a beaut.

I offered him one of my artifacts of the global life support system but Jeni took it instead – the polished concrete from in front of Fritz’s in Douglas.

Steve also gave me an organic PB and J, so that about wraps up his application as producer. Imagine what we could accomplish with Michael AND Steve.

Send off from the secret freak tribe at Ogden Dunes, Steve is taking the picture

Dan the other filmmaker showed up too and Nancy’s sister – we had a crowd! I was off the beach by 10:30 into a very light wind, Calumet looked very far. As usual, the gods kicked in and we were hauling ass by 2:30 roaring past the breakwaters of the point and into the harbor. I had a sketchy idea where I was going, but studying images on the net paid off. The mooring is kinda wavy, but the beach was an easy offload. We’ll probably move north soon.

Loaded up with technology and even less of a plan, (eat something) I biked off into the wilds of south Chicago. I was feeling like a bit of an idiot, where was I going? My iphone was out of power, so no helpful searching. The mural of Jake and Elwood was encouraging, I just needed to stop worrying and flow. Eventually a train station appeared and I waited on the “To Chicago” side. The conductor was very helpful and suggested I get off downtown for a Taste of Chicago. I didn’t really care about the festival, but I’d been downtown before. Why not?

Detraining at Monroe, I rode seemingly at random until I found my burrito place – small, good food, cute waitresses and one table with power to charge the iPhone – hurrah! I searched for hotels, then an inspiration… hostels! Remember hostels? The Hostel International Chicago was just a few blocks away for $30 a night. A bike room, laundry, crappy wireless and oblivious young clods – what more could I ask for? At least waves won’t be bashing my spine at 3:00 am. If I can find a solid home for HW, I’ll haunt Chicago for a few days and catch up on the project, duplicate hard drives and ship them home. Maybe within a week we can be back on schedule… Whoa!

What can I say about a night at Chicago’s Hostels International? Generally it’s fun – bunk beds and common bathrooms, padlocking gear. You’re not supposed to drink in bed, but I am constantly needing to hydrate from days in the sun so I took my water bottle up to the top bunk with me – and my laptop, camera, phone… After I nodded off I heard the my bottle slip between the bunk and wall and fell into my neighbor’s bed below. I had dreams of his bed flooding, of my camera getting wet.

Then some duffus came in, turned on his reading light and left for another two hours. I can sleep through a lot but WTF? Coming entirely awake at 3:00 am, I toyed with a scheme for hauling my water bottle back up by dropping a slip knot over it. I could clearly see it between his bed and the wall thanks to the light of the inconsiderate oaf. Problem solving is so much of my moment to moment experience now that it’s like breathing. Fishing with a slip knot in some random dude’s bed seemed fraught with peril, so I bagged the project and resigned myself to fate. Mr reading light finally returned, read for 5 minutes and turned off the light. Just then my downstairs neighbor headed for the bathroom. I pulled on some pants, jumped down and grabbed my bottle. I took it and my phone down the hall to the empty conference room for some charging and catchup time.

Too late to go back to bed – 5:00 am! 7 hours to get to O’Hare airport to meet an old pal. Around 7:00 I checked out the hearty all GMO breakfast the hostel had provided for the kids of less gullible nations and chatted with Anna from Argentina. She was a latina ringer for Sarah Eichberger-Wheeler.

Day 25 and 26

Jean Klock park. Spent yesterday and this morning with Carol deconstructing the very sleezy maneuvers required to tear down exquisite wild dunes and privatize a community commons. Will a poorly designed golf course and an upscale brownfield development really become the new economic engine of Benton Harbor?

The Jean Klock Park Wikipedia article includes an excerpt from John Klock’s dedication in 1917. He and his wife Carrie gave the park to Benton Harbor as a memorial to their deceased daughter, Jean. Emphasis is mine.

“In taking an inventory of life, we all take stock of the circumstances surrounding the happiest moments. The giving of this park to the city of Benton Harbor has been to Mrs. Klock and myself, the happiest moment of our lives. The deed of this park in the courthouse of St. Joseph will live forever. Perhaps some of you do not own a foot of ground, remember then, that this is your park, it belongs to you. Perhaps some of you have no piano or phonograph, the roll of the water murmuring in calm, roaring in storm, is your music, your piano and music box.”

In closing Klock affirmed: “The beach is yours, the drive is yours, the dunes are yours, all yours. It is not so much a gift from my wife and myself, it’s a gift from a little child. See to it, that the park is the children’s.”

Fast forward 90+ years. About 2/3 of the park has been leased to a commercial golf course and land development scheme, Harbor Shores. Prior to this horror show, a chunk of the park was sold to private parties for beachfront homes. Talk about invader species. The legal battles have been long and hard fought. The last gasp of the suicide culture deploying the same failed strategies with predicatable results. In the short term, loss of wilds and the subversion of local democracy.

So where is the future here? How does this illustrate the emergence of sustainable civilizations?

I think the answer is Carol Drake. She’s a tenacious being with a fierce love of the wilds. Decades into the struggle, she still sheds a tear recalling the Jean Klock Park of her youth. She might feel weary and despondent but she won’t rest until the invaders are repelled and the land healed. She’s doesn’t have wealth or advanced degrees, she just loves that park. That’s what gives her the gumption to keep shoving sabots into the flywheels of the death machine. She hasn’t stopped it yet but she’s certainly slowed it down, made it smoke and grind. Like the Klock’s she copes with her broken heart by giving the gift of the earth. Her continued existence is evidence of a miraculous sustaining energy. It’s my theory that the global life support system has been flowing through her. She is the vanguard, we are all getting plugged in.

Her dunes are coming back.

Julie gave me a hard time about getting a map going and today I finally did all the digital magic. There’s also an updated itinerary at You are here.

Day 15 – 16

Paused in the Pine Motel parking lot on the way back from Wallys, riding the Zilliax Miyata back to Oval beach in the rain. It was a warm rain and I wanted to add a little more to this blog entry. I stopped there for some solid wireless, dripping and pecking at the screen. I should have just checked in. I got back to Oval Beach and following through on my promise to not camp. I pushed Hello World into the surf and anchored for the night… or so I thought. Once out there snug in the tent, the wind came up and started to buffet the boat. Waves smashed the bottom of the trampoline and rolled down my spine. Backwards and forwards, up and down with Hello World creaking and complaining all the while. I eventually bit the bullet and traded my warmish sleeping bag for a wet wetsuit in preparation for an emergency beaching. The worst thing is to do have to hard manual labor after nearly falling asleep. She was secure by the time first light arrived and I got started getting her ready for a few days alone, hauling gear to the parking lot.

Day 16-19

Susan’s smiling face around 10:00 am then 45 minutes back to Kalamazoo (Kzoo, Kazoo) and Garland Gardens (Vince and Susan’s house). Trot the gear up to my garret and start charging. Quick tour of the home farm, 100+ tomato plants. Vince’s mom and Aunt Rose arrive, then Vince himself from packing his classroom, (they’re refinishing the floors at school over the summer). Pizza for dinner, then off to record Vince performing with the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra conducted by Miles Kusik and featuring Carlo Aonzo. There’s an after glow at our house where I finally break out the Larrivee and play and sing with members of KMGO. Vince fuels the evening with homebrew beer.

Since constant vigilance and top performance is not currently required, my body demands rest. I yawn and groan constantly.

Wake up on Thursday and organize the blog and posts. I am way behind and intent on catching up. Processing Vixia video with Final Cut Pro takes time, so the computer and hard drives are constantly munching. In the afternoon take the camera to a practice of Great Lake Aquatics (Akitas) the swimming club and racing team that Vince coaches. His coaching is what I’ve come to document. Use the Aquapac underwater bag for the Vixia successfully, tho it continues to be awkward. Kids are a little creeped out by guy in pool with camera. I am caught of guard when Vince introduces me after practice and do a lame job of explaining the project. Home for dinner with Susan and noodling on guitars. Blackout.

Great Lakes Aquatics Summer Solstice swim meet starts on Friday and I’m there to make movies of the Akitas racing against other clubs from around the Michigan and Canada. Catch a ride there and back with Dan from the team, a habitually happy guy. Big storm sweeps through with winds up to 70 mph on Lake Michigan. I fret for Hello World and put a call into Vicki at Oval Park and text to Dave and Allison at Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance. While waiting for the pot of oopama I am making for the fam and visiting swimmers, get creamed at the card game Set by teens. Spend an hour or so interviewing Vince. Video processing is ongoing, begin to run short on hard drive space. Will have to buy additional drives eventually.

Visit the meet again on Saturday for events with Swim for Success kids. Party again at the house with the meet officials and some of the other coaches. Interesting conversation about how pool swimmers have anxiety about open water. Problematic to move pool swimmers to a wild venue (we got lakes) for promotion and expansion of swimming sports around Michigan. Vince and Susan force me to agree to visit the Ondrej, Mattej and Jan Pekarovic at their goat ranch on the way back to Saugatuck Sunday. I disappear to edit Vince’s video and blow off packing.

Morning of Friday May 28, three weeks after the original launch date. If I can get on the water in the next few days, I’ll likely be sailing into late August early September. I’ve still got a 3 month window, September is an entire extra month. I may have to skip the wedding in California and cancel my summer guests though. It’s all just blow and bluster – there’s no telling what will happen.

This morning I’ll raise the mast and get her on the water, then disassemble and into / onto the van for the portage over to the big lake. Finish packing and go.

I admit to feeling a little daunted by all this. There’s nothing accidental in building up the momentum – it’s a decisive effort, a force of will. The journey could remake me, that’s really why I’m going. Dipping into my media feed to catch the news of the day, I feel the call to activate. I am ready to live my gifts, to be what the earth needs. My time has arrived.

Yet there’s the inertia of the familiar. Leaving behind what I am for a deeper experience, even a more enlivened and capable Dan Kelly – it’s scary. Also, It kinda sucks to vacate my happy little beach squat for the whole summer.

Ha! Well, there’s not going to be a terrible accident that provides an honorable retreat. Destiny is my decision.

Ready for shakedown

Oops! Rudder trouble...

I started the staging area in March and completed it yesterday with the help of nefs and their pa. Steve zapped the stumps from the two big poplar trees. Jonathan, Patrick and I moved the logs to the lake to create sand catching jettys and wove the branches into a Andrew Goldsworthy inspired fence. I had to explain the purpose of the fence twice… “when you bring a girl here, she’ll be more likely to take off all her clothes if she thinks the neighbors can’t see.” That’s a plan we can all get behind.

We saved as many little trees as possible, especially the dainty white pines saplings. I can transplant them later, for now they fit right under the boat.

I didn’t have a mast bearing so we didn’t get the mast up. I’m checking and packing gear today and will make a pilgrimage to Traverse City to pick up odds and ends. With luck I’ll have Hello World out for a test sail this afternoon.

White pine saplings shelter under the trampoline

The wild beach with freshly deployed poplar jettys. No sand yet...

Sarah Castle recently tweeted an New Scientist article by Deborah Mackenzie, Living in Denial, Why Sensible People Reject the Truth. This may have been a continuation of our exchange over my Stephen Hawkin inspired ET conquistador proposal, so I’ve been thinking about it, teasing out my ideas. It’s a sketch, perhaps once I am on the water I’ll elaborate on these themes.

***

There are many ways to ask a question. People test hypotheses, initiate conversations, open themselves to experience, devise tools for discovery, make myths, wonder without words and relax into knowing.

Science yields reliable predictions about the future. Compassion reveals the feelings of others. Mindfulness is an inquiry into the possibilities of the present. Living history is an exploration of the past from suppressed or forgotten perspectives, as demonstrated by Howard Zinn and John Hendrik Clarke.

Our experience of reality is determined by how we ask. We manipulate and fabricate reality with questions. ‘What do we want?’ can often be entangled with ‘What do we want to know?’ Know in the sense of both having pragmatic information and in the sense of wordless rapport, whether sexual, spiritual, aesthetic…

Science is one way of knowing. It’s emphasis on prediction has enabled our amazing technological civilization. We begin to realize though that the questions science poses cannot insure our survival or even guide us to joy.

Edward Bernays applied the theories of Sigmund Freud to develop the most destructive force yet unleashed against the earth – the consumer. Industrial productivity enabled by scientific inquiry has broken the climate. We literally cannot live with science alone. That’s Koyaanisquatsi – crazy life, life out of balance.

Science has rubbed out the authoritarian gods – and filled their shoes. Just one more rigid system that must not be transgressed, *cannot* be transgressed – it’s the law. The law of gravity, conservation of energy, etc. It’s impossible to step outside these laws… until our understanding shifts and we find those laws were just special cases, applicable only so long as x and y were true. Are we really so arrogant to think that our understanding is nearly complete?

Rather than demean or ignore other methods of inquiry, scientists should look for allies. Anyone who is intensely curious, anyone who is rigorous with inquiry – whatever the method –  is potentially an ally. Openness to the idea of questions could be the basis for unity. Questions should not be evaluated by whether they can fit the dominant mode of inquiry but whether they are interesting, useful and even fun.

Conspiracy theorists attempt to break free of the gravity well of conventional thinking. They express a pragmatic and savvy skepticism of authority. They are entertaining. Not all conspiracy theories are bosh either, conspiracies really happen.

If we accept that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 911 and that he didn’t have significant weapons of mass destruction, why did we go to war with Iraq? Was it just a big mistake or can we use the C word here? I remember a lot of misleading imagery and dysfunctional reportage in the media back then. I remember fabrications by authorities and leaders. Who’s ready to step up and name that animal?

We can’t survive if we limit inquiry or act only on the authority of experts. Rather than deny the irrational we ought to find out what it has to offer. If both the rational and non-rational are our allies, we won’t be at war with ourselves.

***

Update

New Scientist is doing a whole series on Living in Denial. Three days ago Michael Fitzpatrick contributed with Questioning Science isn’t Blasphemy. Dr Fitzpatrick may not agree with what I’ve asserted here, but I appreciate his bringing some balance. I had read Why Sensible People Reject the Truth weeks ago and was inspired to try and contrast my position, to articulate what seemed important. I have to thank Deborah Mackenzie, her assertion that folks who don’t agree with orthodoxy are mentally ill, she really had me going. I hadn’t reread her article until tonight and whoa! The generalization that “all denialists see themselves as underdogs fighting a corrupt elite” could as easily be applied to activists and reformers.

Here’s a conspiracy theory for you -  There’s rumors that the Tea Party movement is corporate funded. If Ran Paul is the best those folks can muster, then maybe the whole point is to discredit dissident movements in general by equating them to the Tea Party.  You wanna take back your government? Aw, go join the Tea Party!

There’s a terrible tragedy at this end of this post, so if you’re the weepy type close your browser and check back tomorrow.

How to glue pennies to the bottom of a Hobie Cat, the completion of Hello World’s armor deployment.

Including the 8 layers of powdered aluminum running along the entire keel, I wanted plate metal to protect the hulls where they would start to run aground. Matching hull curvature with a single sheet of metal seemed daunting. I imagined a corner or an edge of a single sheet being peeled back in an impact – nearly impossible to fix in the wilds.  In contrast, if the metal sheath consisted of many small plates or tiles then an impact might tear away one or two tiles and leave the surrounding tiles intact. The tile approach was inspired by the space shuttle’s thermal protection system. I had sheets of scrap copper laying around, but I didn’t really like the idea of cutting them into little squares. Pennies are just about the right size, and they are readily available everywhere I’ll be.

The copper in US pennies comes from the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is the thumb of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. US pennies minted on or after 1982 have a zinc core coated in a thin condom of copper. Before 1982, pennies were about 95% copper. A roll of pre 1982 pennies is worth $.50 cents as coin, but the value of the copper is $1.00. In doing this project I found that about 10-30% of pennies in circulation are  pre 1982. That means that if you had $1000 worth of pennies, you’d actually have about $1100-$1300 dollars. Of course you’d have to melt and sell the older ones, which would probably get the Secret Service on your ass. It might not be a bad idea to sort and stash your pre 1982 pennies in a safe place until such time as the federal government collapses and you can melt them without fear of arrest.

A preliminary cleaning – bathing the pennies in dilute muriatic acid	Rinse
Dry	Remove all oxidation to attach
In formation with attach side down – these need to be flipped	Tape fixes the pennies in formation. Slicing along the edge of the rows so they’ll articulate and follow the curvature of the hulls
ready for pennies	West Systems 404, resin and fast hardner

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The rentry system is complete. The tiles on the starboard hull had drifted off the edge slightly,  but otherwise looking good!  Hello World’s hulls were almost ready – all that remained to do on Sunday was hatch installation and caulking the pylons.

I use plywood props to support the hulls to keep them upright during hatch work. A couple of nails where the plywood meets the picnic table keep them from slipping. I had the plywood in place to support the port hull and was about to tack the last sheet down when the hull rolled away and almost fell off the table onto the concrete. Though I was able to catch it, I didn’t save the day.  It had rolled right over the claw hammer and broken the fiberglass in two spots. Fahgk!

Quel damage!	The broken fiberglass removed.
The pressure from the claw almost busted the inner skin, note the slight shattering in the center	At least the hatches are in

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I could have fixed the holes right then and there if I had more of the magic West Systems 404 powder but West Marine had already closed. So I am off to Traverse City this morning and will walk in just as they open the doors.

Yesterday afternoon I tested both the Aquapac underwater camera solution and my Gul skin out wetsuit with a swim to the blue line.

A classic tao situation. All the cheese and yogurt I’ve been eating is starting to show – too much repair work and not enough expression of magnificent physicality. I couldn’t run yesterday morning ’cause my calf was inexplicably crampy again. I was also thinking about my Gul skin out wetsuit because Scott of Sailsport Marine scared me. Just before he sold me rivets for the jib tracks, he said “Dude, you’re crazy,” and “That water is cold.” He’s right, it is and will be for a month or two more. The prudent move would be to test my wetsuit and what better way than with a rigorous 15 minute round trip to the blue line? (computer, phone). An adventure just before sunset.

Success! It was cold certainly but I could probably last an hour in the water, plenty of time to right a flipped Hello World. Pulling off the wetsuit afterward I realized that my original justification of the need for cheese wasn’t self deceptive gluttony after all. A little extra fat might be a smart start. So the cramping calf, the cheese, the wetsuit repairs, the dire warnings of my local Hobie dealer… I just went with it all and lo – enlightenment, bliss.

I did it again just now without the camera and with Five Fingers instead of booties. Water temperature is 49F.

The cold could fire off ear infections so alcohol is a must. My hands were scary cold when I started but were buzzing with warmth at the blue line. Hallucination or superior metabolism? I’ll definitely get some gloves to complete my neoprene ensemble. I’ve also got to replace the Gul logo on my chest – maybe I can get the URL on there somehow.

That’s how much fun I’m having right now. Hello World’s first finish coat was applied this morning. Speaking of Malcolm X (today’s his birthday, he’d be 85) here’s an insidious bit of racial marketing I came across.

The VOCs from the Interlux Brightside White paint are intense!  As replacement filters for my old respirator are hard to find I decided to buy a new respirator. My local Ace Hardware stocked several models from AO Safety. They all used the same filters and ranged in price from high $20 to mid $40. The highest priced had a picture of a serious looking middle aged white male with iron gray hair. The lowest price looked like this…

Is that subtle or what? Here’s the embarrassing part – I instinctively reached for the expensive one first because I assumed it would provide better protection, until I noticed that the filters were identical. Was I choosing based on price (inference of quality), or racial affinity?

I ended up buying the brown people respirator. You know what? It pretty much sucks. After painting for couple of hours this morning I had a headache. WTF? Tell me there aren’t aliens running the planet. You can sell us the crappy respirators, but you can’t kill us.

Here’s Hugh Hamilton’s show Talk Back on WBAI FM New York for May 19, 2010, (local archive is here). There’s fundraising during the first 10 minutes or so, but after that are excerpts from some of El Hajj Malik el Shabazz’s most amazing speeches.

Here’s the back page from the vintage Hobie Cat brochure that came with Hello World. Hobie had an intriguing angle on catamarans in 1979 – camping. Perhaps being a subsidiary of the Coleman Company had something to do with it. I don’t know whether this was a significant factor in sales back then, but this photo sure made an impression on me. Sailing Around Lake Michigan was not in my head when I bought her – so let’s hear it for the power of antique lifestyle marketing!

As the groovy copy explains, Hobie 16s can navigate very shallow water and can even be sailed right onto the beach – sandy preferably. They can go where few other boats can with minimal impact on the environment. That’s why Hello World is ideal for wilderness camping – in theory.

A spiel reminiscent of Adam Curtis's Century of the Self documentary series.

In practice, rocky shallows and sandy shores scrape away the hull bottoms. An lightly loaded Hobie bounces off rocks, deflecting the force of impact and minimizing damage. Add tents, sleeping bags and other cargo (like tripods and scuba tanks) and inertia increases, making direct impact and serious damage more likely. Landing a loaded Hobie on a rocky beach requires a slow approach. When the water is shallow enough to wade, it’s best to get off and walk her in, off load the bags, place Bao longs (solid fenders) under her hulls and then roll her up.

Even with such careful handling Hello World’s bottoms were pretty chewed up after last September’s trial run. To survive 3 months requires armor.

The highly worn areas along the bottom have already been protected with 9 layers of epoxy mixed with 10% powdered aluminum, an additive sold by West Systems for abrasion resistance.

Powdered aluminum is also a component of thermite – a steel cutting explosive used in building demolitions. Traces of thermite like residues have been detected in the dust from the Twin Towers. It took me two days to armor up the keel with the powdered aluminum, and each batch I mixed was a sort of meditation on dark history. My two beautiful fish, the feet of Hello World shod in sleek gray gloss. Perfect paradox.

Applying armor

Originally, Patrick and I had discussed installing thin steel plate along the keels. To conform to her complex curves, the plates could either be curved to match her contours or be placed as tiles, like on the space shuttle. In a worst case scenario, tiles could be torn away without taking a great chunk of hull with them.

Lining both keels with steel would have added a lot of weight – so aluminum powder was the choice. The most vulnerable section is between the bow and the mid section, the point of first impact below the water line. I repaired damage there when I bought Hello World and smashed it again myself last September.

Armor detail on port hull. Roller texture will be abraded soon enough.	Port hull from inside. The most vulnerable area is defined by the width of the filing cabinets

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I’m currently investigating plating the most vulnerable bow/mid section with pre 1982 pennies, which are 95% copper.

…and by the way, Happy Birthday to Me!

I know the journey has started when I don’t know when it’s going to start.

The moment when the handcrafted Hello World slides into surf cannot be predicted. I’ve been back in the water since the year flipped. I’ve shared my process nearly every day for the last month. Even with the dust of her body clinging to my clothes, her curves all atangle and in disarray, we search. The important part is how we start – not when. This project celebrates assembly after all,  the awakening of the way.

August 09 same thing. Time was a fiction,  deadlines a conceit. Jackie Ankerson made it plain yesterday. Do I want the sun to fly across the sky, am I in a hurry to get to my grave?

Here’s how I’m changing. No time on wind river, (computer / phone) she’s ready when she’s ready. I too may only be half baked / boiled – though last night’s tub could have been the hottest ever.

Now that we’ve settled that…

While returning from yet another pilgrimage to my local West Systems and Interlux dealer, I realized that I only had to have interesting conversations. I only have to interview people who fascinate me. Does any part of this adventure need to suck? Not on purpose!

The way to make this project (and life in general) amazing is to dare to be who I am. If this movie is going to be watchable then I have to push through to me. Naked on camera – glorious, confused, grinning, dashingly scruffy, fierce, introspective, full of shit, fabulous!

You’re either down with the Dan or not. All those Facebook scribblers – pshaw! Why, I’ve been gushing my secrets without a by-your-leave since before Mark Zuckerberg was cozying up to the shadow government or stealing his clients’ ideas. Who remembers tractor feed paper?

Look, I know nobody’s reading all this, ok? I’ve got better things to do than read my ramblings too. All this bluster is a sort of encryption. God is always in disguise, otherwise there can be no cosmic game. You get it now? If not – no worries! It’s likely the Rev. Victoria Weinstein didn’t even make it this far – and she’s a divinity professional.

Despite precautions, when I crawl into bed I feel the prickle of tiny glass fibers on my naked skin.  I mingle with Hello World, we become one flesh.

Hello World is more than my production platform, transport and home. The ‘boat as planet’ analogy is especially relevant – if my boat’s messed up, I might die.

Do I mythologize when I say it’s a cinch for me to feel her presence?  Like me, she is made of star stuff. A lot of energy and intention went into her design and manufacture. In her 31 years of existence she’s been a facilitator of much joy and excitement for the Vigland family. She’s been cared for with pride and guiltily neglected. Now she’s collaborating with a mad genius and his wild tribe on a world saving Search for Sustainable Civilizations.

When during this sequence of events did sentience arise? Is she alive and deserving of love only because I’ll be counting on her?

It’s fun to wonder about. What I can report first hand is our rapport, especially when sailing. She moves with and speaks to me, she is aware and involved.

Mere cybernetic transference? Advanced visualization technique? Dan smiles….

What does all this have to do with today’s progress report? The fiberglass work is stretching because this boat is a being.  I have to do my best by her. Attend, please.

When hatching hulls, the standard procedure is to cut a hole and screw the hatch on. That’s not for me. The Viking hatch I bought from Murrays doesn’t mate well with the surface of the hull and removing structure compromises Hello World’s strength and integrity.

My solution is to create a ring of new structure around the hatch hole and build up the hull surface for a nearly perfect fit. This manuever made an afternoon’s project into 4 days!

Love keeps Serenity in the air says Malcolm Reynolds. I’m so down with that. Knowing I gave Hello World my best attention will keep me grinning when we’re miles from shore and a crazy wind is howling. I’ll remember that I loved her enough to take the time, and she’ll fly true.

A cup of ginger tea before donning the yellow hazmat suit and starting the day’s fiberglass fun. The Brunton inverter is whirring away somewhat creakily as it charges this iPhone. Most of the gear has already been checked for solid operation, the Brunton solar power components are among the last on the list.

How am I changing? I’m preparing for nomadic life, for wandering within. It took Loreen Niewenhuis over a year to walk around the Big Lake, so the distances involved are imaginable, human. The scheduled duration of our sail Around Lake Michigan is about 3 months.

I get to go faster than Loreen because I’ve got technological infrastructure and a larger carbon footprint. Though powered by paddle and sail alone, Hello World is an industrial child. She owes her existence to oil drilling and petrochemistry, (polyester resins, dacron sails, nylon rope) not to mention mining and smelting, (aluminum frame and mast, steel fittings). Add in the filmmaking electronics we are carrying (rare earths, heavy metals) and suddenly this project isn’t quite so bright green.

The price for 3 months of environmental documentary in a romantic mileau is a diminishment of our collective destiny. I kill all of us a little by making this trip. I’m not an impact idiot either, I work to minimize the consequences of my daily actions – fairly small footprint as far as 1st world lifestyles go. Even so, the way our civilization is set up, I can’t help but hurt.

Jor-El packed his infant son into a spaceship and sent him from the doomed planet Krypton. Moses was placed in a reed basket and launched on the Nile. The stories keep coming back. We make another variation today – an artifact of industry launched to transcend industry by reminding us of what we already know. Into the shadows to search for light. I am the man who asks the child’s questions.

Sorting and packin

x

Dreams of flying last night. A decisive ignorance of gravity and intense experience of remembering.  When I’d stretch into a laughing loft or a lazy backflip I’d feel a body rush / energy shiver flash from my chest. I kept thinking – I’ve done this countless times before. I’m dreaming… but this is real.

Flying is fun but what felt the most amazing was remembering. This dream came from the same place as the perfect attention / rapture vision I had with Jon and Laura. It’s the reality behind the waking state, what I’m really doing here. Transparency. I keep seeing thru – for which I am grateful.

I’m in the tub now as Tuesday fades. I’ve got the iPhone in it’s waterproof bag so as to catch up on my reports. Fiberglass repair halted yesterday when I cut the hatch hole for the port hull and found the foam sandwich soaked. Basically a winter of hanging in a warm house didn’t dry Hello World completely. Not only does extra water add weight, but the existing fiberglass structure needs to be totally dry before new glass will bond to it.

Port hull has yet to opened, starboard hull hatch ready for sanding and shaping

x

It’s May and all – but a snow shower is not impossible. That might be why Shop and Save is still stocking pure calcium chloride.

Calcium chloride can suck enough water out of frozen air to dissolve and form ice melting brine. I sealed 5 open ziplock bags full of calcium chloride inside the hull. In theory, the interior humidity will drop and the dry air will suck water out of the foam and fiberglass walls. I’ve checked and the walls are much drier while the plastic bags are slick with condensation. Did I mention my high school chemistry and physics grades sucked?

Port hull filled with calcium chloride

x

While the inexorable laws of science cranked away, I picked up my cargo plates from Chuck Hunt of Northern Welding Specialties. Although some of the plates need a little rubber mallet encouragement, they fit fine and seem to be an ideal solution.

These stainless steel plates slip under the lip of the hull…	… enabling straps to cross the top of the hull and keep cargo secure.

x

I also bit the bullet and ordered West Systems 420 aluminum powder to armor the hull bottoms. It should arrive tomorrow afternoon from Bay City, Michigan via UPS ground. With a little luck the repairs will be wrapped by Thursday and ready for touch-up paint.

After this much needed bath I’ll be updating the inventory and taking pictures. There have been a host of minor snafus, to wit… The big tripod won’t fit in the Pelican 1720 cases unless it’s disassembled. The new dive light takes AAA batteries and not AA, which breaks my battery standard. I’ve got to return the extra iPhone bag because there’s no camera window. These are all DK errors, but I’ve aced so many other challenges I can’t complain. WordPress for the iPhone is DOA, let’s trust a reload will fix that.

The 1720 cases that will be strapped to the top of the hulls. The big tripod is to the right of the silver scuba tank.

x

The longer I stay the shorter my summer, so I really do have to get out of Dodge ASAP. Folks ask me – are u close to leaving? I’d like to think so, but there are more interesting questions… eg – As launch approaches, how are you changing Mr Dan Kelly? Ah! Ask me, go on… I dare ya!

The hulls upright and ready for hatch work	View towards Crystal Lake
Close up on starboard hull hatch opening before sanding	ready for paint and installation of the hatch
Cracking at the pylons cleared and filled with 404	Stump crack healed and ready for fairing

Places not managed by humans thrive. What does that tell us? The idea of management is inherently flawed. When we see ourselves as apart and other we become the blight.

Learn from the way, the wilds. Become rather than command.

The mad wasichus wanted the yellow metal, trading mythic cyclical abundance for it’s flash and glitter. A thought contagion sterilizing the future.

If conquistador ETs are just a little far fetched, then let’s try virulent memes. Imagine ideas that can infect and replicate. Imagine an idea that can shut off our drive to survive, like bio weapons shutting down our immune systems. We know ideas flow through culture like breeze through trees. What if ideas evolved too? What if an idea was alive… and toxic? Eek!

What would a cognitive immune system look like? To have tasted the yellow metal madness and recovered. Building immunity to an intriguing idea, even rejecting a complex meme synergy – an entire culture.

Folks misbehaving might be the cognitive immune system at work, attempting to throw off the infection. A hallucinatory fever, madness against madness. Burning off the bad ideas.

Is there such a thing as mental medicine? Can we develop a serum, an infusion, a protocol?

Analogies are fun.

Are we ready? Not quite yet. Fiberglass repairs will take another few days. An ordering snafu has delayed the arrival of some gear. Chuck is fabricating cargo plates that need to be tested. This weekend’s weather forecast is not beach friendly.

It’s official! Launch has been pushed back to May 15. This Saturday’s party is canceled.

Progress is otherwise stellar. Dan Kelchak did a beautiful job on the Larrivee and It’s first coat of armor is on. The body tone still seems to be quite bright. The 1720 Pelican cases are ideal for both guitar and the new 30 cubic ft scuba tank. Winslow’s self silencing torus has arrived and it’s voice is reminiscent of indonesian gamelan and himalayan monasteries.

Here are some fiberglass components fresh from their molds. The collar is intended to reinforce the hull access ports. Note the black stitching showing through where the strips of glass cloth were sewn together – Patrick’s idea. The 5 foot strip was saturated with resin and then wrapped around a circular form to form about 1/4″ thickness. The S shaped bit is a casting of the hull lip and was passed on to Chuck to be used as a guide for the stainless steel cargo plates.

The Larrivee with armor plate. The overlapping edges have to be carefully sanded flush with the guitar’s body.

Winslow’s fabulous torus. Loud! Movie…

Hello World in the rain. Not quite dry dock.

Driving in to Traverse City for another round of errands. Fiberglass repairs are in process. Could wrap primary hull repairs this evening, with fairing and paint by Wednesday (2 days). That’s when I’ll decide whether to launch as planned or push it back.

Here’s today’s to do…

West Marine – 206 hardener (just in case)
Chuck or other fabricator – build cargo plates
Dan Kelchak – Larrivee pickup
Scuba north – 30 cu tank fits Pelican 1720?
Ace Hardware on Front St – sander heads and disks
Oryana – lunch
Aluminum powder?

Woke up with a big happy after an 11 hour crash. About 8:30 pm last night I started nodding and had to lay down. Could have been the wine and lasagna… or just the turnings of mystery.

I clarified my extra-terrestrial conquistador theory to Kari yesterday when she brought over lunch. White euros weren’t themselves aliens by and large, they were just the first to come under alien influence. The white euros established colonies as unwitting agents of ETs, vanquishing native cultures through chicanery and bio-weapons.

This discussion flows from Stephen Hawking’s recent suggestion that maybe we shouldn’t be advertising our presence to the cosmos as we might attract cosmic conquistadors… and end up like the Aztecs or the Incas.

IMHO, it’s not an issue. The Aztecs and Incas didn’t broadcast on shortwave and invite the smelly Spanish to come lay a can of whup ass on ‘em, they got “discovered”. Likewise, we don’t have to worry about attracting space pirates to Earth, they’re already here. That’s why the dominant culture is locked on apocalypse and folks are conditioned to kill themselves. We’ve been infiltrated and double crossed… and most of us have no clue. The best attack is the one the enemy never notices.

Yep, I’m out of the closet. Conspiracy nut – don’t tell me you’re surprised?!

What does this have to do with sailing and sustainability? Most humans really are human but are tranced out, especially regarding their self interest. Using the conquistador analogy, there are certainly way more humans on earth than space invaders. We humans can wake up to what really matters – like a robust global life support system. Global life support is our number one native priority. Anyone who advocates otherwise has an ET’s arm up their shirt, yanking their yack strings.

Sustainability starts with reminding each other who we really are.

Chief Seattle said that the white man’s way was the end of living and the beginning of survival. Now it’s unclear if most folks even know how to survive. Remembering how seems like a great place to start.

By the way, we’ll probably never see a full on space invader until we’re damn close to taking our planet back. So just assume everyone you meet is an authentic earth native. Beyond the raving and occlusion, we can find a way to be a family again.

Since I’m making a movie, I can get away with documenting everything. Writing daily, describing insights and epiphanies ad nauseum. This blog is a strategy for generating interest in the project – coming soon to a theater near you… Clearly I am a social media savvy filmmaker!

Let’s flip it. What if I just had an urge to share, to pass my memes around? What if i just wanted attention, to be listened to? The whole movie thing, even the adventure of sailing Around Lake Michigan solo in 16 foot catamaran… what if it all is just a plea to “look at me!”?

My ex-wife would’ve agreed. She thought that my outgoing and gregarious habits were a sign of deep insecurity. Thus the prefix ex. She might have been right, maybe I was/am deeply insecure… but I think joyful contact and rapport with others is a healing force. Cowering in a closet gets me nowhere.

The path of recovery from addiction starts with recognizing and admitting the addiction. Disabled athletes blow us away because of what they achieve *through* limitation.

We face a world crisis that seems to big to cope with. National governments are puppets to profit and unable to act. It’s frigging scary. What can we do with the fear?

If I am sailing just to get attention, fine. If my limitations can be leveraged to make a miracle, what’s the problem? Driven by my insecurity, perhaps I’ll discover a wonder. If this entire project becomes an enormous public pratfall, a disaster – so what? I’ll take what’s at hand and give it a whirl, painting with the full palette – confidence and insecurity. The creative principle is consciousness. When we pay attention everything becomes useful.

I want to demonstrate the art of glorious mistakes and fortunate accidents. Arthur Dent learned to fly by falling and accidentally missing the ground. We learn when we forget how to fail.

Familiarity breeds contempt, which is another way of saying – fuggedaboudit! Failing is painful at first. The trick is to fail big time, over and over until the novelty wears off. Then try even crazier stuff, schemes so totally out there that eventually genius kicks in and voilà! If not success then at least another blog post.

James Cameron’s life is shifting because of his super blockbuster, Avatar. Democracy Now interviewed Cameron yesterday. Here’s where to find it.

WBAI NYC archive for Tuesday April 27, 2010 8:00am (audio)

Democracy Now archive Tuesday April 27, 2010 (audio or video)

ondesire.com archive mp3 (audio)

Heading into Traverse City to shop and run errands. Here’s my list…

Oryana

1. bug repellent (no deet) [Green Ban] (1)
2. food

Backcountry

1. paddle head or new paddle
2. sawdust bag (waterproof)

The UPS store 14th or garfield the ups store

1. return iPhone 3GS [Apple]
2. repair ID

Scuba North

1. go see Scuba North ponies 19, 30, 40 cu ft
2. out wetsuit[Gul] in car
   1. repair
3. harness
   1. compatible with dual ponys + PVC dummy?
   2. padding for pec/bicep

Brick Wheels

1. bicycle [Miyata, Steve Zilliax] in car
2. needs tune
3. replace handlebars
4. valve adapter

Dan Kelchak

1. Parlor Guitar [Larrivee] repair, stabilize back [Kelchak]

City Mac

1. laptop power supply [Apple Computer Macbook power supply] (1)

West Marine

1. West Systems faring and structure supplies
2. mixing cups (yogurt containers – recycled)
3. paper towels
4. x2 200 ft of line (30 ft depth x ~5-7)
5. sample line in car

Sailsport Marine

1. extra rivets for the jib traveler tracks (tight, no play)
2. rudder (spare)

Jeff’s house

1. drop off thumb drive

Richfield Trailer Supply 470 Us Highway 31 231-943-4700

1. flat hook straps

Shop and Save (Benzonia)

1. tape measure
2. white gas
3. 20′ rope, 30′ drawstring, 200′ twine
4. zip locks
5. x5 NiMH 9v battery (2)
6. x20 NiMH AA batteries (4)
7. jumper cables
8. grinder

Bear Lake

1. fordham tool
2. bits

Much ordering, inspections and organization. I’m driving up to Traverse City tomorrow or Tuesday for a shopping day.

Fiberglass work has not started, I expect to prep the garage for Hello World today and maybe even get her in there. Structural damage is spread over 5 spots totaling 1 square foot in area. The hull bottoms need to be faired and all repairs painted.

Compared to last fall’s rebuild, this work should take about 5 days from prep to paint. As long as there are no surprises once repairs start, launch will be on schedule. I’ll be posting progress.

I’m introducing a new variable to the equation – saddlebags. The idea is to deploy uncrushable waterproof storage so the Larivee parlor guitar can come along. One scenario involves strapping Pelican 1720 rifle cases between the hulls and tramp. I could also keep them on “on deck” and eliminate one of the big dry bags.

The cases weigh 20 lbs each. Hello World can carry 500 lbs but I want to stay well under the max and only carry 400 lbs. I weigh about 180 lbs + 40 lbs of cases = 220 lbs total. That leaves 180 lbs for gear or the equivalent of three decent sized backpacks – 1 for wilderness camping, 1 for production / power and 1 for scuba. Don’t forget the bike. Doable.

On the Master Checklist, orange text is for items that need to be inspected, tested or acquired. Green text is for items ordered. Checked items are on hand and ready to go. Monitor our progress towards launch on the Master Checklist… like watching spring shoots poke up out the dirt!

http://www.ondesire.com/2010/04/18/master-checklist-alm-2010/

It’s 5:15 am, a bit early for me to be up. On my way back to bed after taking a leak I knocked over a mason jar of water. Groping in the dark for some clothes, towels – anything to mop it up… remembering belatedly to snatch my phone and computer from harm’s way. Loathe to turn on the lights and spoil my natural melatonin rush. Disaster narrowly averted, except I didn’t much feel like falling asleep after. Time then for the morning post.

Dream before I kicked over the water… A friend and I were kissing, (let’s call her Eve). I said I was waiting for her to take a break so we could be together. She said she never took breaks. I know there’s something there for me.

47 is old, at least to my 17 year old self image. Back when I first discovered intimacy and connection – I guess I just got stuck there. I still feel the world with the heart of a cocky teenager, only more confidently. A sensual and intimate kid, deeply romantic, a sex god – I knew that I wasn’t destined for hearth and home. My passion wasn’t going to wear down and find a familiar groove. The way of the lone wolf was waiting.

I don’t have a steady lover – that’s the point. There’s possibilities, prospects but my attention strays. I can’t cozy down with anything less than the ultimate… so keep moving. Settling for less seems like capitulation, the end of dreams. Rather, let me howl in the desolate heath and run wild, forgotten.

What does my love status have to do with a boat ride, the earth, anything? There must be some reason (other than back story) to touch this. Standing on a whale, fishing for minnows. That’s the dream life by analogy. The big awakening is right here, yet we scramble for tiny insights. What does that dream mean?

It means get up sucker and get ready. Only 13 days until you’re married to wind.

A brief postscript.  While I was sleeping, my excellent brother became the 2nd most viewed male on a popular (and competitive) online dating site, and he’s 10 years older than me… Way to go, bro!

Beautiful. Inventory and ordering continues today, with a bit of general organization around the house.

Yesterday I became 6.5 lbs heavier when I started wearing a scuba weight belt. Carrying extra weight is an easy way to challenge the body and build strength, even when just walking around the house. I ran 3 miles with it too and felt fine. A year or two back I owned a weight vest designed for training firefighters but sold it after a few months. It was too much of a hassle to wear it with less than 15 lbs. The belt I hardly notice.

I’ve been writing for an hour just about every day for the past few weeks. That’s the drill with any serious practice – do it daily. My writing might improve if i keep this up, imagine that! Once on the water it could be challenging to keep the longer posts coming. I may only be able to check in on days of easy wind.

Gear ahoy!

Getting close now. Order of operations seems to be holding together, it’s spooky that I’m mostly on schedule. Everything can go right between now and launch… it’s possible.

I am noticing more, recognizing the unfolding of a larger story. A lot of ideas to fit into a coherent movie… I guess I started this, mostly just made myself available and let the pieces fall into place. Is this what I want?

How it began… On location in 2006 shooting my first movie with a budget. For the next two years I spent most of my days free climbing the first movie learning curve. Daughter of God – http://dogthemovie.com. I kept the fridge full with freelance production work for NYC dancers.

In 2008 I spent yet another perfectly good summer sweating in a tiny apartment staring at screens. The DOG project has merit and is worth finishing, will be finished. Is anything worth giving up a whole summer of diving Crystal’s blue, of running barefoot in the forest, of waking up to waves lapping?

Here’s the deal… Daughter of God is set in a post apocalyptic world, it’s a post apocalyptic surreal romantic comedy, sinister in the sense that some humans still dream of asphalt plains resplendant with the snaking migrations of countless multi-colored cars. It’s over tho, human population has been devastated, industrial infrastructure deleted and nature is reclaiming the cities. Certainly there’s toxic aftermath, sure the survivors are traumatized, but they dress snappy!

Meanwhile, back in RL I’m listening to Democracy Now every morning on WBAI radio. Assembling a fictional apocalypse seems pretty pointless when an actual apocalypse is nigh – I can never match the Pentagon’s special fx budget, let alone Gaia herself.

I wondered… Is DOG the best use of my time right now? Wouldn’t I rather be swimming? How about that super hero correspondence course I just aced?

That’s the setup. In the autumn of 2008 Kai invited me to make a documentary about sailing in Hawaii and – of course – sustainability… Well? What would Jesus do?

That was earth momma’s little joke. Come summer 2009, Kai abandoned Desire and Pele for a motor sailor… and I noticed there was a 30 year old Hobie Cat in my driveway.

Is this what I want? To act as an agent of Earth disguised as a pirate filmmaker? Hours drifting wind free followed by contact improv with Shiva? Three months of wilderness occasionally interupted with regionally brewed stouts and porters? The making of a saint?

I say, Yes.

Kari was over last night for dinner and we talked about guns, earthships and vision quests. She used a big cutting board as a model of Hello World, sliding it back and forth on the counter top as if it were tossed in a slow motion tempest. She talked about her training for scuba and snorkle and how you always take a buddy on the water.

“Doing what you are about to do, alone on the water, says you are willing to die for what you are willing to live for. It’s a prayer out there.”

I mentioned that I wasn’t sure whether it was Geronimo or Crazy Horse, (it was Roman Nose) who laid down on a tiny raft and got stormed on for 4 days. After that bullets couldn’t touch him.

I never thought about this aspect of the trip. Sitting with the awareness this morning I felt reluctant to even relate our conversation – but this is an open source inspired project.

Those who are ready to read this post will. Those who are following and paying attention may share my epiphany. Wow. That about covers it.

Joe Campbell advocated following your bliss. Bliss or passion. Zeal. Zealot.

Back around again to desire. What do we want? Are we ready to have what we want, where that takes us? Each of us has a built in compass that we’ve been taught to fear. Humans are only clever animals after all, they’ll rape and murder given half a chance. Our nature is savage, red in tooth and claw. Monsters from the id, Morbius.

If we buy that, then desire is the last thing we’d ever dare to explore. Desire comes from our nature, desire = nature. See where this is going? By denying our desire we deny our nature and that’s how trivial and self destructive life ways are imposed upon us.

Ah, what a grand opera this truly is, I begin to see it now. Over and over authentic experience has been replaced with the mediocre, the slaughtered labeled savages and erased from history. That’s why we’ve got to keep digging up so called sustainability and relearn it, reimplement it, re-remember it. Taught to fear what we are.

What am I?

You might notice an unusual use of pronouns in this project. “We” usually replaces “I” when discussing the trip. That’s because Hello World has it’s own identity and presence, it’s not just Dan Kelly sailing Around Lake Michigan, it’s Dan Kelly and Hello World. When sailing we become a cybernetic / symbiotic fusion of two sentient beings, so technically “I” would be appropriate, but we’re not always sailing. Sometimes she and I are lounging on the beach or rolling at anchor in the swells.

How can Hello World be a “she”? I mentioned our symbiotic rapport when under sail. If the wind is wild, the edges between boat and Dan blur. My senses stretch – I feel the taughtness of the sail, hear the singing of the wires – every creak and twist of the hulls are happening in my own body. Comparing it to sex is a cliche – it’s sex with deep trust on the edge of oblivion. It’s sex to stay alive.

Once initiated into this mystery, one can’t help but see the radiant goddess in curves of fiberglass, swishing nylon and aluminum arches. She too is an artifact of the industrial age – love has no limits. Americans can learn to cherish sailboats and earthships as much as they loved their hydrocarbon powered cars, maybe more. Take heart.

Another unique use of “we” and “us” is in reference to the tribe. Everyone who’s thinking about the trip, telling friends about it or helping to make it possible is traveling along with Hello World and Dan Kelly. Even without blog posts or tweets, I can feel your attention and presence. We are all doing this together.

What’s today about? The schedule is already slipping but that’s to be expected. We’ll have to make daily adjustments as launch approaches. Concentrating on core issues, getting ready to go.

The master checklist is about 90% complete and posted. It will be revised right up to launch day as I sort, verify and (if needed) repair items. Borrowed, contributed and purchased gear will be arriving next week.

The itinerary was posted yesterday, but it’s really just a sketch. Short of having Edgar Cayce or Nostradamus on the team, there’s no way to know our schedule in advance. The itinerary has two functions – to provide a rough idea of where Hello World and I need to be and when so that the trip can wrap well before the snow flies (August) AND to inspire the tribe to think about artifacts and where they may be – specific people and places. We’re getting action on that already.

Just ran 4 miles, 2 backward in 21:00 minutes or 10:50 minutes/miles and 2 forward in 16:11 minutes or 8:05/minutes/mile for a total of 37:11 minutes. The backwards miles are amazing, just keep tossing the feet behind and trust.

Sunny and chill by the lake this morning. Working through the recently posted order of operations, taking inventory and building lists. I expect to be asking this afternoon and into tomorrow – contacting a few key companies and inviting them to collaborate with gear and services. I’ll also have a list of companies whose products are already part of project. They can be approached later for help with post-production.

The lists also provide a trail of breadcrumbs for those who might like to replicate the Search in their own locale. Low impact exploration doesn’t have to involve sailing or even extensive travel – future artifacts are everywhere. The lists are modules – camping, hiking, sailing, cooking, production – that are applied to fit the situation.

Building, revising and simplifying these lists is a wonderful process. Limiting my life to just what I can carry on a boat is liberating. Being ready for whatever might arise, I can feel truly home – wherever I go. At ease. Present.

My methods will determine my results. By asking what minimum requirements are, I’m tuning into what really matters. I think that’s the basis of this whole project. Desire is what really matters most. I want to live, I want to be warm, I want to eat. The lists answer these fundamental questions.

Handling the fundamentals I suddenly realize that I’m free – everything else is clutter, distraction and entanglement. Amusing perhaps, convenient, attractive… but being able to let all of that go – that’s the beginning of the discovery. If I can find future sustainable civilizations, it will be because I am able to thow off the fetters of the present civilization, to drift free from it’s assumptions and imperatives. Empty and open to a simplier way, starting with survival.

revised 10-05-23

Light

1. √ flashlight [Sure Shot]
2. √ dive flashlight [Intova]
3. √ x4 lighter
4. √ x3 chemical light sticks
5. √ candle lantern
6. √ x5 candles
   

Hygiene Health and First Aid

1. √ scissor
2. √ tweezor
3. √ utility knife
4. √ finger nail clipper
5. √ bandaids
   
6. √ cotton swabs
7. √ hair ties x6
8. √ electric razor
9. √ floss [Toms]
   
10. √ 3x toothbrush heads [Fuchs]
11. √ toothbrush [Fuchs}
    

Shaman Rx

1. aspirin
2. √ cold sore (september)
   
3. √ sunscreen [Dr Hauschka]
4. √ x2  bug repellent (no deet) [Green Ban] (1)
   
5. √ Niacinamide Gel [LifeLink]
6. R-alpha lipoic acid [LifeLink]
7. immune boost [Banyan botanicals immune support]
8. √ Beta glucans [LifeLink]
9. CoQ10 [LifeLink]
10. melatonin [LifeLink]
11. √ Dinindolyl methane (DIM) [LifeLink]
12. √ Quercetin
13. Lugal solution
14. Steve’s skin saver
    
15. B-12 [LifeLink]
16. Zheng gu Shui (bone water)
17. Wan hua oil (joints)
18. Ching Wan Hung (burn medicine)
19. oregano oil
20. sage
    

Reference library

1. √ weather [Weather 1957]
2. √ writing [Elements of Style, Strunk and White]
3. √ first aid [Wilderness Medicine Beyond First Aid, Forgey]
4. √ ropes [Ropes, Knots and Slings for Climbers, Wheelock]
5. √ scuba [NAUI Openwater I Training]
6. √ sailing [Catamaran Sailing from Start to Finish, Phil Berman]
   
7. lyrics
8. spanish[Pimsleur]
9. tai chi forms video [Ru]
   1. √ sword
      

revised 10-05-31

1. √ x2 socks wool [Icebreaker]
2. √ x2 underwear poly/merino
3. √ x2 underwear cotton (1)
   
4. √ merino top [Icebreaker Bodyfit 260 XL]
5. √ x2 merino bottom [Icebreaker Bodyfit 260 L] (1)
6. √ black cargo pants
7. √ pile pullover
8. √ wind/rain shell [Patagonia]
9. ASK *** wind/rain pants [Patagonia]
10. √ pile baklava
11. √ wool gloves cut-off
12. √ shorts [Patagonia]
13. √ bandana
14. √ dress shirt
15. √ sailing and surf shoes [Vibram Five Fingers]
16. √ hiking boots [Blundstones]
17. √ sun hat
18. √ pack towel

1. √ submersible VHF – [iCom M72]
2. ASK *** iPhone 3GS [Apple]
3. √ dry bag [Aquapac]
4. √ iPhone back-up [Apple]
5. √ dry bag [Aquapac]
6. √ Mifi [Verizon]
   1. √ Mifi interface USB
   2. √ Mifi power
   3. ASK *** summer connection

revised 10-05-19

This is based on the 09-08-31 Master Checklist, posted only 5 days before the September launch. We’re posting this 18 days before launch – that’s progress.

revised 10-05-31

Launching 23 days late and this will be the final review. Yikes, so much for progress.

1. Survival
   1. warmth
      1. shelter
         1. √ tent, poles, stakes [The North Face]
            1. check
               
         2. √ sleeping bag [The North Face, Cats Meow 2001]
         3. √ sleeping bag [Montbel, Ultra Light Alpine Burrow bag #3 2008]
         4. √ foam roll /  yoga matte [Gaiam]
         5. √ x2 tarp 4′ x 8′
         6. 20′ rope, 30′ drawstring, 200′ twine
      2. sailing wetsuit / drysuit
         1. √ skin out wetsuit[Gul]
            1. repair
         2. √ booties
            1. replace w/warmer
               
         3. √ hood
         4. ASK *** drysuit
      3. clothes – link
   2. water
      1. √ water bottles x4 [Nalgene]
      2. √ ceramic filter pump [MSR]
         1. check
      3. √ dual use – see Hello World/righting/big bucket
         
   3. cooking
      1. √ locking pot with lid
      2. √ big family pot
      3. √ 4 x bowls
      4. √ 4 x spoons
      5. √ dish soap [Ecover]
      6. √ scrungy
      7. √ wooden spoon
      8. √ paring knife
      9. √ white gas stove [MSR Whisperlite]
         1. check
      10. √ x2 fuel bottle large [MSR]
          1. fill
   4. √ food
      1. √ grains (make link)
   5. √ sanitation
      1. √ portable composting toilet
         1. √ prep
      2. √ sawdust bag (waterproof)
         
   6. sundries – link
2. Hello World [Hobie Cat]
   1. checked and repaired
      1. hull structure
         1. √ starboard bottom hole from rock impact, possibly near dune buggy blowouts UP
         2. √ starboard hull ratching hook dents under lip ~5
         3. √ port dent from stump pre 2009 launch
         4. √ ratcheting hook dents under lip ~5
         5. √ install hatches
         6. √ fair hatch surround
         7. √ reinforce inner hull under hatch
         8. √ fair and armor keels
         9. √ plate first impact
         10. safety patch
             
      2. inspect
         1. √ frame
         2. √ lines, shrouds
         3. √ mast
         4. √ rudders
         5. √ sails [Whirlwind]
         6. √ remove Hobie logo
         7. √ shock cord for trapeze (10-05-13)
         8. √ main traveler (10-05-13)
            1. thread lock main traveler
         9. √ big bucket righting system
            1. √ test
         10. √ ditty bag
         11. toolkit
         12. spare parts
         13. √ paddle head or new paddle (10-05-13)
         14. √ harness with back support and spreader hook [Murrays] (10-05-13)
         15. √ hull graphics
         16. √ x4 baolong fenders (10-05-13)
   2. Tools
      1. tools – link
   3. Legal
      1. √ Passport
      2. √ Hello World registration
      3. √ x4 vds – water proof flares [Orion]
      4. √ air horn with bike pump [Ecohorn]
      1. √ torus bell [Winslow]
      1. √ x2 life preservers for trapeze [Stohlquist]
      2. √ x1 white light
      3. √ x1 red/green light
      4. √ x2 light mount and safety line
      5. √ x2 anchor, 6 feet chain with buoy
      6. √ x2 200 ft of anchor line (30 ft depth x ~5-7)
      7. √ x2 45 ft of line (5-7 ft depth separate or 12-18 ft combined)
   4. Navigation
      1. √ gps and charts iPhone application [iNavX]
      2. √ x2 compass [Engineer] [something that won't explode or fog up]
         
   5. Production and Power
      1. production and post kit – link [Canon] [Apple]
   6. Communication
      1. √ submersible VHF – [iCom M72]
      2. ASK *** iPhone 3GS [Apple]
         1. √ dry bag [Aquapac]
            
      3. √ iPhone back-up [Apple]
         1. √ dry bag [Aquapac]
      4. √ Mifi [Verizon]
         1. √ Mifi interface USB
         2. ASK *** summer connection
   7. Bags and straps
      1. √  backpack – [The North Face Snow Leopard 1991]
      2. √ backpack – [The North Face Technical 1995]
         1. needs repair
      3. √ dry bag backpack x2 [Seal line 115 2009]
      4. √ fanny pack dry bag x2 [Seal Line Sealpack 2009]
      5. √ messenger bag with shoulder and waist strap [Tenba]
      6. √ compression stuff sack [Granite Gear]
      7. √ x6 large stuff sacks [Granite Gear] [Sea to Summit]
      8. √ x7 small stuff sacks [Outdoor Research] [Granite Gear]
      9. √ x2 Pelican 1720NF Long Case without Foam Black 20lbs w/foam ~$400
      10. √ x8 climbing carabiners [Black Diamond
          
      11. √ x4 climbing carabiners locking [Omega Pacific]
      12. √ x12 H16 cargo plates [Dan Kelly and Chuck Hunt]
          
   8. Scuba and Snorkle
      1. ASK *** waterproof enclosure for Vixia [Light and Sound Bluefin] [Gates]
      2. √ waterproof enclosure for Vixia (shallows and light duty waterproof) [Aquapac]
      3. √ pony scuba tank 30 cu ft [Luxfer]
         
      4. √ pressure gauge [Cessi]
      5. √ harness
         1. √ adjusted straps removed shoulder release
         2. √ compatible with dual ponys?
         3. √ padding for pec/bicep
      6. √ regulator [Seaquest]
         1. √ purchased 87 rebuilt 7/09
      7. √ mask [Mares]
      8. √ snorkel [US Divers]
      9. √ x2 fins [Mares]
      10. √ x2 weight belt
      11. √ x4 dive weights
      12. √ flag
      13. flag mount
      14. √ NAUI card
      15. √ bag for mask and snorkle
      16. √ check mask for leaks
          
      17. √ mesh bag for all gear
   9. Landing
      1. √ bicycle [Miyata, Steve Zilliax]
         1. needs service
         2. replace handlebars
      2. √ aircraft cable (cargo)
      3. √ ratcheting straps (square ends not hooks)
      4. √ heavy duty chain and lock [American]
      5. valve adapter
   10. Art
       1. √ jbells
       2. *** ASK soft chaulk [Prang]
       1. √ Parlor Guitar [Larrivee] 36.25 x 13.25 x 4.5
          1. needs repair [Kelchak]
          2. armor [Dan Kelly]
             
   11. Logistics
       1. √ trailer

Time for a list of lists, a preliminary inventory. With 19 days left, we’ve got to design the optimal sequence of actions. To avoid the carbon cost of airplane flight, new gear needs to be shipped ground which means ordering within the week. Gear requests should be started first so we’ve got to decide what we want and who we are going to ask by Monday.

One of the prerequisites for asking is an effective introduction to the project. This is where the mini-movie fits in and it’s several days behind schedule. We are just going to have to make requests based on written materials with references to the long running video excerpts. There are five components to our collaboration proposal – a good idea (√), a coherent and workable plan (√), established distribution channels eg Ondesire.com, Facebook and Twitter (√), a documented mob (growing) and an articulate introduction (pending). Having a non profit umbrella would also be helpful so that contributions would be tax deductible. Since I missed my NP liaison last month, I doubt I could set this up before June 1, so I may just have to skip that. Perhaps it’s worth a phone call.

Monica Evans asked about making cash donations to the project. The trip itself is not all that expensive because it’s designed to be replicable/low budget/low impact, but post-production after the trip could cost $30k for labor and services. Asking for money doesn’t have to happen before launch, but it wouldn’t hurt to identify prospects now. I could then schedule several days during the trip to make these requests.

The origins, an overview. I’ve written deeply about the inspiration and origins of the project. Along with completing and posting the mini-movie, linking to the most articulate of these posts is vital. Methinks it might be a good idea to link first (today) and the sort out the mini-movie immediately after.

We’ve can instantly develop a starting inventory by linking to last September’s checklists, and then replace them with updates. They will also be helpful in identifying gear collaborators.

Posting our itinerary will not only trigger suggestions from the tribe about where to go and who to see, but other potential collaborators.

Finally, Hello World needs glass and rigging repair. There’s about a week worth of labor plus curing time after each patch, so this has got to begin no later than day 14 on the countdown.

So – here’s the  order of operations draft…

19 days

• inventory/checklist rebuild 4/18

• introduction with links to inspiration and origins 4/18

• inventory revised with potential collaborators identified 4/18

• mini-movie 4/18+

18 – 16 days

• asks initiated 4/19 – 4/21 + mini-movie

• itinerary posted

17 -15 days

• ordering 4/22 – 4/23 + mini-movie

14 days

• Hello World repair 4/24+

12 – 10 days

• ordering and ask follow up 4/26-4/28

9 – 8 days

• provisions 4/29-4/30

• hulls complete and float test

7 days

• preliminary pack 5/1

• trailer and transport arranged

6 – 5 days

• final orders and provisions 5/2-5/3

4 – 2 days

• complete Hello World repairs and adjustments 5/4-5/6

1 days

• final pack 5/7

0 days

• trailer to E beach, launch party, overnight 5/8

ALM 1

• launch 5/9

Here are the general questions which helped me to develop this post.

Who can help, what companies are already involved?

What companies could be involved?

What’s the itinerary so far?

What does Hello World need to be water ready?

What provisions and consumables are needed?

The On Desire tribe reached it’s objective yesterday of 100+ fans for the Facebook page and the Around Lake Michigan movie project.

“This milestone demonstrates that we’ve got a solid core of kick ass collaborators,” said Dan Kelly, ALM’s guide. “Everyone knows that the fool in front of the camera is just the red ribbon on the birthday present, a bit of whipped cream on top of the sundae. We’ve got one hell of a Sundae going down here – the works! Bananas, several flavors of ice cream, nuts… all organic and fair trade of course. Most important though, remember the big dirt ball underneath – Earth. You can’t have a sundae or much of anything without a life friendly planet, well cared for and robust.”

No one was quite sure what Kelly meant by all this, but his delivery was very enthusiastic and animated.

Angela Saxon was one of several newly recruited fans who had no idea what they was signing on for,

“now i’ve gotta figure out what On Desire is all about…”

Due to the hypnotic nature of the Facebook interface, Luke Kelly and Winslow Morgan were able to induce a powerful Svengali effect, as evidenced by Mikayla Bajtka’s and Tim Howard’s posts,

“oh yah i think thats the one my friend luke told me to join lol.”

“OK winslow I fan-ed up”

Though effective, outright bullying triggered residual resentment, as evidenced by this response from the project’s potential spiritual advisor Victoria Weinstein,

“Yo mo-fo, I did it. Okay?”

“Whatever it takes,” responded Kelly. He said some other stuff too but folks were certainly more interested in the naked swim advertised to celebrate the 100 fan milestone. Dan and the project fabrication specialist, Patrick Kelly estimated the water temperature to be in the 40-45 degree F range. Why cherries? It’s Michigan. Roll the video.

10-04-16 Swim to celebrate 101 Facebook fans variable / full screen
10-04-16 Swim to celebrate 101 Facebook fans fixed size

This is an all points bulletin. Facebook fans are needed at…

http://facebook.com/ondesire

The Facebook interface is halt and lame – I can’t argue with that. It’s a sinister black ops app, designed to identify stylish shamans and target them for liquidation – Quite so.  Casino theory has been implemented in it’s design to suck time and life force from it’s victims / members – Yes, obviously.

Fret not, we’re infiltrating the infrastructure and turning the whole scheme topsy turvy. This page is blessed, so FAN like crazy! Here it is again…

http://facebook.com/ondesire

Winslow the blacksmith has been talking about a bell for Hello World on Facebook, but I kinda hate FB’s interface so I thought it would be easier to post some illustrations here and then make some comments.

It’s important that a bell be somewhere where it can’t brain your favorite sailor in big winds. Also, it’s important that I’m able to ring it when needed and silence it completely when not. If it could be set so that wave action makes it ring, this would be handy at night and in fog. With these criteria in mind, there are two places to mount a bell, A under the bridal shroud lines (an inverted v of aircraft cable that runs from the bow of each hull and connecting just below the sail and B at the end of the main sail boom. The boom swings around a lot but the very end doesn’t ever cross the trampoline – where the sailor is stationed.

An advantage of having it at B is that it’s more accessible to the sailor. Location A might be more stylish.

Any shape of bell can be mounted at A or B. Winslow has presented a bike bell sort of design that looks interesting. He choose this primarily to minimize a tapered edge like one might find at the bottom of a bell shaped bell. Traditional bell tapers would act like a meat cleaver given a little momentum.

Since locations A and B are not near the sailor, a traditional bell would be ok. It’s really up to Winslow. Since he is offering his energy and unique vision to the project, I want to give him space to express himself. Along with the criteria mentioned above, it should be no bigger than 6-12 inches in height and not much heavier than 10 lbs.

Beauty is a feeling and this morning I have it. It’s the combination of rapport, getting fit and making progress.

In the past two days I’ve reconnected with Brook Hash, Susan Gilbert and tonight Kari Tomashik will be stopping in for a bite. My excellent nephews and I ran hard yesterday. I need a few more days on the mini movie / extended trailer but I may have figured out how to introduce the idea of future artifacts.

Still and gray tho it be today, the momentum of spring is near. Life is stewing and brewing, electric green is sizzling up though the concrete and lighting up the tips of twigs. This is a wave I can ride – renewal, awakening.

The solar panels will deploy, the wind pumps sway and twist. It’s the sun harvest and the global life support system, extant. Welcome back miracle and much thanks. Show me the science and I’ll show you the presence, live and direct.

Let me be as useful as an early leaf today, stretched taught and crispy in the brisk new day.

Calm and serene – that was the mantra of the Marietta college freshman crew team. Yeah, we were buff brothers and precisely sychronized, but coach Ralph Lindamood (1922-2001) was a savvy old coot, he knew relaxation was the third leg of the high performance tripod. He had us trained up in a sort of self hypnosis meditation tecnique. We won like crazy, our tiny Ohio College trounced team after team. It’s the tradition in crew for the loosing boats to give thier shirts to the winning boat. I didn’t need to buy a t-shirt for 10 years.

I tell this story because we can be strong and smart, but for a truly stellar outcome it helps to chill out. Get centered. I know a martial arts teacher who is exceptionally lethal and when he dances in combat he smiles. Not the manic grin of a psycho killer, but the easy smile of someone having fun – without a care in the world.

I’ve brawled as a kid, truly angry punching and grappling. What’s more stressful than fighting? What I’ve learned is that intense fear/rage is counter productive in combat. Stress makes me a casualty. It’s the same in life.

With 25 days left before launch, I could be getting worried. Three weeks may not be enough time to get everything together. Being unprepared could mean either failure to make the movie or even failure to survive. The later I leave the later my return and the colder the weather gets. I may not be looking at a balmy September like 2009.

You know what? Worrying about it won’t help. The most productive place to be in this crisis is calm, empty even. I woke up this morning feeling exceptionally relaxed and easy. It’s getting down to the wire and I’m right there, with an odd sort of smile on my kisser.

This is calling card weekend, three days to create a short movie that explains the project. I’ve already got a 40 minute rough cut of the September trip (presented at the Evening of Exploration in November). My plan is to scavenge the best parts of the rough cut and adapt it to a shorter format, 10-12 minutes.

I also need to develop an explanation for future artifacts of sustainable civilizations and perhaps do character development for the ALM guide, (moi).

Here’s a sketch of the “analogy”. Larry Kinney explains the  concept of the life support system with the story of the MIR space station. A linkage is presented between MIR and the Earth and then parallels are drawn between MIR and Hello World. This gets us into the rebuild of Hello World, the packing and launch sequence. It’s all very tenuous though, the connections (analogy) between planet, boat, island and space station could be more obvious. Then there’s Julie’s idea of the human body, another example of a life support system.

Another idea is present mechanisms that are familiar, iconic…

and then making the leap to a planetary machine, with interdependent systems like the familiar water cycle.

The global life support system is important to establish, because it’s invisible. Yes there’s a lot of talk about global warming, coastal flooding, killer storms, etc. but these are abstractions. Most folks take friendly conditions for granted, we don’t realize that there is a life support system in operation. We don’t acknowledge that our collective situation is akin to an astronaut in a spacesuit or a scuba diver breathing from a tank. Kai’s image was a ship in a bottle, the bottle being the atmosphere.

Once the global life support system is revealed, then human actions either conflict or align with it’s operation. Another word for actions in alignment or accord is sustainability.

I got back from NYC on Tuesday. The round trip from Beulah to Brooklyn is 1800 miles. Each 900 mile leg is about 14 hours of driving. In contrast, 900 miles of leisurely sailing might take 2 months or 1440 hours, 100 times slower than driving. It’s an apples to oranges comparison – the car trip is about nullifying geography and the boat trip is about about connecting to it. If I sailed vigorously, Hello World might manage 100 miles a day. A 900 mile trip would then take 9 days or 216 hours – still 15 times slower than driving.

Both methods of travel are good for thinking. The hazy blur of rushing road and the sparkling wind river of Hello World convert to a steady flow of insight. The following are my notes from last Friday’s drive between Michigan and New York.

Can Tiller and Roeder both be terrorists?

On April 2nd the BBC reported about the sentencing of Scott Roeder for the shooting of Dr George Tiller. The lawyer for the Tiller family, Lee Thompson called the murder an act of domestic terrorism. According to the BBC, Roeder also invoked terrorism to describe Tiller. “We do not need to be hunting terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan. We have them in Kansas. Wichita is a far safer place for unborn babies without George Tiller.”

Can Tiller and Roeder both be terrorists? How do the terms terrorist or terrorism improve our understanding of a situation or the issues? Via an upgrade to ultimate epithet, terror variants have lost their meaning. The iconic 911 event was itself a cipher that triggered bizarre military operations and political obfuscation. Without a distinct definition, terror-isms will eventually loose their emotional charge. If so, then Terrorist Training Films may already be a bust. I sense that the BBC’s story contains some clue, a .jpg of the zeitgeist.

Unsustainable

Another example of empty language was provided by NPR sponsor Monsanto, “sustainable agriculture”. I could be wrong, but I don’t think Around Lake Michigan is going to find Monsanto in the Search for Sustainable Civilizations. Patented seeds, Round Up and RICO ready operations aren’t artifacts of anything but the cult of suicide. Either I’ve got to make that word untenable for Monsanto or else change the movie’s working title. Are there any words which are inherently resistant to corporate acquisition? What about integrated, accordant, balanced or survivable civilizations? We understand what a civilization is, but perhaps modification isn’t effective. A custom concept might be a better approach, define a plausible sound.

Lake Michigan inspired sound

Speaking of sound, what about the soundtrack angle? Steve Elrick, Melonie Steffes, Jonathan, Luke and I talked about this weeks back, recruiting folks to contribute music to the project. I could find a place for the parlor guitar maybe. I (or someone) needs to reach out to the players and pitch the idea. Here’s the shortlist… Jamie and Kirk, Susan and Vince. Melonie and Shaun, Lucas, Gretchen, Jeff, the other Jeff, Todd and Laurie, Yvonne and on and on. After the calling card.

Add the wilds in

Colin Fletchers Walking the Green World reminds me to add the wilds in. It’s so obvious that like science fiction, I’ve tended to forget that it’s central. The Global Life Support System is functional wherever the wilds are intact. That’s why my personal mission is to expand global awareness to steward and expand the wilds. Terraforming is science fiction because we don’t yet understand terra, we don’t understand how this planet wide mechanism works, much less how to replicate it. All we know is that the wilds are part of it and industrial human presence not so much. So where we find wilds, we’ve got an opportunity to learn.

The most amazing thing is that the wilds are automatic. We don’t have to pay for or repair the wilds, we just have to leave them be. That’s why it’s called the global automatic control system. It’s big and it doesn’t need to be controlled or tinkered with. It just works. We get excited about new technology, yearning after gizmos and whatsits when we are surrounded by uber advanced technology, wilderness. Our own wondrous bodies run pretty well on leaves. The kingdom of heaven is spread upon the earth and man does not see it. Well, let’s see it already.

Asthma, diabetes and cancer are the result of environmental degradation. The cure for modern epidemics is to stop killing ourselves, eh? Burning books is symptomatic of ignorance. Wiping out wilderness is akin to dragging our families into the flames.

From Monday eve… Waiting at Newark airport for the arrival of nephew Lucas who’ll be riding shotgun on the return to Michigan. The intention is to drive through the night. If we can get out of here by 9:00 pm tonight we can pull into his Bear Lake house by 11:00 am on the morrow.. Fortunately I am well supplied with sencha green tea from the Park Slope Food Coop…

We made Bear Lake just after 11:00 am. The other three Kelly men gave us a hearty greeting and we all proceeded to chill, nosh and netflix the day away. By 10:30 pm I was homing in on the lake house, bed and a light coma.

Now nearly motionless in the spindly rocker, dreaming of a ginger banana smoothie and socks for my bare feet.

About 30 days left before launch.

After class, the inner circle enjoys congi and greens at Great NY Noodletown.

View from the Manhattan bridge of Chinatown and beyond.

Riding over the East River to Brooklyn on the trusty Zilliax Miata

Double shift at the Park Slope Food Coop doing checkout.

Next!

I’m in line myself, buying mangos and seltzer to supplement the upcoming Mexican takeout.

Back at the casa, Brent and Cyn.

Brent models Aveda’s upcoming super fresh “Thuggie” TM. You saw it here first.

I went to Tai Chi at the South Street Seaport seaport this morning. The usual cast of characters were present but here are two especially excellent ones.

Melinda keeping the fully mobile Aura from escaping.

Aura is Tommy and Eva’s and she has started walking since I last saw her in February. The last time I laid eyes on Melinda was about 3 years ago, maybe longer. She and her husband Robert moved into a sweet space just a few blocks away, and now she is coming to class regularly. That’s where Travis, Charles, Melinda and I went with Ru for treatments.

Travis finishing up his treatment.

Melinda and Robert’s amazing home with a view of the East River and South Street Seaport.

Check out the tallships just past the FDR.

Tea while waiting for my camera ready hair cut by Brent at the Soho Aveda.

Here’s the before shot.

In the recently acquired 2003 Odyssey with the antique cat, heading east and listening to Stevie Wonder. BK’s just 9 hours away.

Good times under the catamaran last night. A core cadre libated and kibitzed until the wee hours. Pictures to follow. Patrick stayed over and helped clean up. Now the lake temple is once again presentable. Can a party have a point, an objective? For me, gathering merry souls under the twin hulls of the fabulous Hello World is the beginning of a blessing.

44 days until the scheduled launch. In 3 weeks I’ll look back wistfully and think, “I remember back when there was plenty of time.”

The logistics of sailing and camping for three months are significant. There’s the boat itself which includes spare parts and repair supplies. For those who haven’t sailed, know that it takes lots of rope, pulleys and metal doodads.

Navigation is handled mostly on the iPhone with compass and chart applications, but I’ll carry actual compasses for backup. There’s also safety equipment required by the Coast Guard like flares and lights.

Food and shelter is handled with a wilderness camping kit – backpacking tent, sleeping bags, tiny stove, pots etc. Don’t forget the CNA or Composting Nitrogen Accumulator, aka Poopomatic TM.

On top of getting around and maintaining life, remember we’re making a movie here. That means at least one camera, cables, tripod, microphones, hard drive, laptop, batteries and solar panels for charging it all.

All this stuff has to weigh less than 250 lbs and be sealed in dry bags. There’s no cabin on Hello World.

Boats, islands, spaceships and planets are related – they have finite carrying capacity, specific conditions (gear) are required for life and long term survival requires attention and careful planning. Around Lake Michigan explores this idea, it is the project’s inherent artifact.

How do we realize sustainable civilizations? We find artifacts and figure out what they imply.

I’ve been so focused on social phenomenon that my first thought when I wake up is to get online. With only a month left before launch, it’s time to kick the habit.

I’m replacing my morning urge to compute with yoga and tai chi practice. I’ve joked about being eye candy for the camera but the truth is that Around Lake Michigan is physically demanding. I might spend hours hanging in harness if there’s big wind. I’ve got to pack and haul 70 lb drybags twice daily and push 300 lbs of sailboat on and off the beach… for three months.

My friends know I’ve been into yoga for about 20 years and studied tai chi since 2004. As a pragmatic guy, I judge the value of these disciplines by what they have enabled me to do, both physically and emotionally. I can call upon deep resources when things get intense.

Being fit and capable is as essential as packing flares and first aid. I’m confident I can get up to fighting trim within the month.

How is physicality an artifact of a future sustainable civilization? Yoga and Tai Chi are ancient practices with an expanding reach, even discounting the trite and goofy mutations. Bodies must move for optimal health, we are not designed to be sedentary. To be fit is to be alive and present. Julie had this great insight about the metaphor of planet as island, island as boat, boat as planet. With her usual directness she added – body as earth. Our body is a metaphor for earth. If we wish to be adept stewards of the earth, we must begin with our personal cosmos and portable ocean – our own body. Learning to steward and celebrate ourselves, what a concept.

Awareness is my way. Science and religion both miss the point when they ask us to deny our awareness, what we just know. Not know from common sense or by faith, by analysis of data or by memorizing some scripture, but know from being alive. What’s worth cultivating and the basis for any worthy protocol is to trust our own experience, to attend to our own experience and be open to our moment. Thus are we able to navigate and enjoy the quirky world in all it’s marvelous contradiction.

Hello World on this exquisite Saturday!

I needed a break from social phenomena this morning so I went outside and cut down some trees. How does that jive with the project ethic?

About 20 years ago I allowed the lawn around the Artist house to grow wild. The non native grass sprouted long and tufty and then native flora started to reappear, tiny conifers and the prehistoric looking dinosaur grass. The massive poplar, a landmark of the yard, surrounded itself with new saplings and then toppled into the lake. This event coincided with the first visit to Michigan of my yet to be exwife. I ignored the implications and married her anyway – but that’s another story.

Poplar trees grow fast, they probably are filling an important niche in reforesting of open land. Around the house they are vulnerable to infections that twist thier trunks and rot them out. That’s how it was with the two monsters I knocked down today. They were over 30 feet and maybe 15 years old, loosing thier core near ground level. A big storm could snap them off and then what? Maybe my or my neighbor’s house, or even me – crushed.

I dusted off the electric chainsaw and dropped them carefully, directing the thick trunks to a safe landing. Next step will be to chop them up, clear the braches and create a staging area for Hello World.

Jonathan has been questioning the veracity of the doom assertion in the ALM / artifact premise. A premise or pitch is a shorthand introduction to a project – typically delivered in less than 15 seconds (and often in an elevator). A great pitch should distill a project and summarize it rather than simplify. Here’s the current version of the ALM pitch.

We know that a sustainable civilization is coming because if it doesn’t show up, we (human beings) are doomed. Since we all expect to survive, survivable civilization(s) must emerge within the next 10 – 15 years. That means they must be already coming together, they must be in the process of emerging right now.  We can can expect to find fragments and partially assembled components everywhere. These artifacts of future survivable civilizations can be discovered and shared, growing awareness globally. That is the objective of Around Lake Michigan.

Is this premise inherently misleading and broken? Jonathan offered some interesting insights.

Jonathan – What’s the proof that we are doomed? That reminds me of mainstream media’s fear mongering and exaggeration which makes intelligent folks allergic.

The more I think about it, the more of a core issue it seems this might be, as far as making this site truly communicate with folks.

It isn’t clear who is the source of the information, when you say that there’s dark things up ahead. Where is this prophecy coming from, you (dan kelly), the scientific community, the mainstream media, etc.? If the prophecy is coming from one of these sources, then you need to explain why the audience should be looking to themselves to answer what the solutions are, rather than this source. And that isn’t usually easy.

Example, if the scientific community is saying global warming is the problem to focus on, and people respect them and this opinion of theirs, then they’ll naturally look to the scientific community to tell them exactly what they should do about it. They won’t look to themselves for the answers, because they weren’t even capable of noticing the problem until science pointed it out to them.

Another example is 9/11. From observations and common sense people could see that it was not an accident, but not who was to blame for it. Later that same day the government/media started putting up a picture of Osama Bin Laden, explained who he was supposed to be and that he was supposed to be responsible. And so it was the government/media that folks followed to war, not their own individual pieces of knowledge or independent viewpoints.

If you want to break out of this system, of people following “leaders” or “experts”, and instead trusting in and finding solutions to problems themselves, then they have to become aware of the problem within their own experiences and minds. Otherwise it is just more blind faith. You need to show people the symptoms of a problem they can become aware of within their own life experience, independently. Ask them to confirm what you are saying within the things they have already seen.

Certainly if the artifacts of the solution are already around us, there must also be the artifacts of the problem for people to confirm what is going on for themselves.

Within the context of ALM and this website, you as the stand-in character for the everyman, the joe average, could talk about your personal experiences that made you become an environmentalist. Maybe recount how you saw certain things change over your lifetime that made you aware the present course was heading in a very dark direction.

Then recount some of the artifacts of a possible future way of life, that you experienced over your lifetime, that lead you to start this search for a sustainable way of life.

This reminder about individual experience is indeed powerful and worthy. Mass disconnection from direct experience is what makes the toxic consumption juggernaut possible. On Desire is a DIY effort, it’s about taking personal responsibility for the situation. “What situation?” Jonathan asks. What exactly is our ALM guide, Dan Kelly talking about? Let’s tease out some story from this.

A character effectively developed is believable. The audience travels with the ALM guide because they can relate to him, his struggles and aspirations have been offered and accepted by the audience. They don’t need to agree with him or even like him to go along on his journey, they just have to get him. Search the posts for “guide” for more background on this.

Andrea made the point that Dan Kelly can’t be a detached observer. Who would believe that a detached observer would fix buy a 16 foot cat and sail 1000 miles searching for artifacts of a survivable future? That sounds slightly passionate if not a obviously nuts. This character is motivated by something more compelling than reports on CNN, he is acting from his gut. He may be delusional, but his direct experience has galvanized action.

Of course the audience should look to their own experience, absolutely. That’s what makes character development possible. It’s tricky to ask for that in the premise though, there’s just not enough time. All we need to do is communicate that this is Dan Kelly’s premise, and illustrate how he acquired it.

Now the pitch starts like this… There’s this guy who believes (insert premise). Well – that’s interesting, how did he come to believe that? Cue character development.

The character development will illustrate how this guy’s direct experience – a heady brew of ecstatic physicality, presence with wilderness, speculative storytelling, an affinity for science and intuitive mysticism intoxicated him with the premise.

If the character makes a robust commit to act on his direct experience, that will be an example for others to attend to and act on theirs… and we’ve made a training film.

In conclusion, deconstructing the premise is a useful exercise. The character Dan Kelly has an epic bent. He has a strong feeling that earth and her human inhabitants are facing a crucial moment. Does he conjure the threat of annihilation to spice an otherwise dreary RL existence? Is he tilting at windmills? There’s no story without conflict, right?

Frodo lives!

We’ve had two dream team meetings, in Brooklyn (Faisal, Erica and Dan) and last Saturday in Beulah (Steve Elrick, Melonie, Jonathan, Lucas Kelly and Dan).

Inviting collaboration and contribution was the focus of Saturday’s meeting. Components of the ask package for fundraising were presented and discussed. Our collective web presence, including project blogs like http://ondesire.com and contractor blogs (http://meloniesteffes.com and http://jonathankellyarts.com) are key. We reviewed the design of the landing page for http://ondesire.com and discussed what our expectations are for it.

•

Melonie – The silhouette image of Dan on Hello World looks “girly”. It’s the first thing I think about when I see this page.

Dan – This is because the camera pack on his left side  gives an impression of wide hips which combined with the long hair  makes the image a little confusing.

Actions

Is it disturbing or discordant to visitors? Some testing is needed. It’s possible to either switch out this picture or try to ps the camera pack out. Might not be a bad idea to broaden my shoulders and add an ornate cod piece while were at it.

•

Jonathan – I’d like to see a link to the latest news, so that folks can jump to immediately to the last 5-6 posts.

Action

The simplest solution is a link to all posts. The most recent will show up first.

•

Melonie – “Desire – the crux of human experience.” That’s important, it should be a headline or bigger.

Dan – “You are here” was intended to give a sense of place, suggesting maps and geography. We can repurpose this for the maps area.

Action

Replace “You are Here” with the crux of human experience” to give it more prominence and simplify the page. Move you are here to the maps page.

•

Dan – On Desire was conceived as a container for many projects, Around Lake Michigan being one of them. Currently, ALM is the only project in there, so it needs to be more prominent.

Action

On the sidebar, move Events up to the top and all the ondesire.com background down to the bottom. Perhaps move the background out of the sidebar totally.

•

Jonathan – The archives take a lot of real estate, be good to move them farther down the sidebar so it’s less cluttered up top.

Dan – Not sure that’s possible. If we had a little WP magic we could link to a separate page where the archives could live. Look into it.  A benefit of the archives being on the sidebar is it demonstrates project longevity.

Action

Investigate whether archives become a landing page link?

•

Dan – Perhaps Dan and Hello World are the vanguard for a wave of expeditions worldwide, perhaps one objective is to inspire other expeditions. ALM could be a demonstration on how to look for artifacts of a survivable future. How could the site be an aggregator for artifacts? Searchers could report discoveries by…

writing a letter / email

leaving a phone message

sending audio or video recordings – youtube, vimeo etc.

Steve – what about incorporating song writing? Steve relates a recent effort to rewrite the lyrics of Route 66 to fit the sights along M22. Could this be worked into ALM? Would song writers and performers be inspired with images of trip geography?

Dan – I really wanted to bring my guitar with me last September, the idea of a giant song writing quilt is awesome. Lucas and Melonie are both making music too, Steve sings so maybe we already have a strong base.

What other ideas can we deploy for hooking the general public into the project?

Action

Who could organize  and manage the music project? How would it work? What’s our protocol for integrating new artifacts, a resource for contributing must be developed.

•

Melonie – Right now the project is the Dan show. We need more artifacts up ASAP.

Dan – absolutely. We have some great material.

Action

Priority – put up other interviews.

•

Dan – The premise, the pitch. We know that a sustainable civilization is coming because if it doesn’t show up, we (human beings) are doomed. Since we all expect to survive, a survivable civilization must emerge within the next 10 – 15 years. That means it must be already coming together, it must be in the process of emerging.  We can can expect to find fragments and partially assembled components everywhere, right now. These artifacts of a future survivable civilization can be discovered and shared, growing awareness globally. That is the objective of Around Lake Michigan.

Jonathan – What’s the proof that we are doomed? That reminds me of mainstream media’s fear mongering and exaggeration which makes intelligent folks are allergic.

Dan – maybe “doom” switched to “things getting really unpleasant,” (wink, nod). Kind of under-promising approach.

Jonathan – Showing change from past to present, activate personal observation.

Melonie – focus on the good stuff, spreading the solutions

Action

A 15 second premise video could be the first thing that visitors encounter.

Jonathan – we need definitions on the site, like xroll, civilizations and artifacts.

Action

Build a project dictionary or a wikitionary

Dan – How do you guys feel about the process of blogging?

Melonie – an old friend found me through my website, I was embarrassed. the first thing I thought was I hope he didn’t read my blog.

Jonathan – I am posting technical stuff because I don’t feel very creative right now. When writing about technical issues, there’s a lot of overhead involved in explaining something simple. Saying exactly what I want, a process of taking stuff away.

Melonie – What about exploring your feelings about the project?

Dan – We will continue to blog, because it’s very powerful to look into ourselves and express what we are becoming. It’s very helpful for our development as artists and for our ability to communicate clearly – to each other and to the world at large. It’s an investment in ourselves.  Melonie’s reaction is very telling, why should we be embarrassed about our own thoughts and feelings? What’s the matter with developing a public presence? Is that ego or just sharing? An open project means we share our lessons and discoveries.

Action

Steve and Lucas can be encouraged to launch showcase sites with Jonathan and Melonie’s help. Jonathan and Melonie write a 1 or 2 paragraph premise – why writing and sharing my journey makes sense for me, or if it did make sense for me, why would it?

On December 13, 2008 I attended an Awakening the Dreamer symposium at Boricua College with Melanie Ida Chopko, aka Melonie Amazing. On Valentines Day weekend 2010, I trained with 34 others to be a symposium facilitator.

Fuzzy pix of the Valentine Watershed facilitators and trainers. February 12 -14, 2010

The symposium is a fascinating blend of modalities designed to activate waves of sleepy and disillusioned humans and deploy them to save our collective butts. Imagine bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling human presence on the planet. Here’s the recipe…

2-30 new participants (the audience)
1-3  facilitators / presenters
AV equipment, DVDs
the script

The script is the key ingredient. It’s authored by various manifestations of local consciousness collectively known as Earth – aka Mother Earth, Gaia and Pachamama. Because of it’s unique origins the script acts like an energy pipe, connecting the audience directly to our fabulous starship’s forgotten super computer. This is not immediately obvious to the audience (and even some of the facilitators) as the script appears to be an ordinary stack of papers in a 3 ring binder.

If this sounds nutty then you are definitely reading the wrong blog.

In a largish room combine all ingredients for about 2-5 hours. This is called the symposium. Include non gmo snacks and drinks.

The facilitators offer the script to the audience, either by reciting it verbatim, rephrasing it into their own words or reading it directly from the binder. The results are the same regardless of how the script is offered – most of the audience enjoys a restored connection to planetary consciousness, enabling the conversion of their frustration and angst into great reservoirs of survival savvy.  Powerful shifts towards a sustainable, just and fulfilling human presence, perfectly adapted to local conditions, manifests within months. A sense of community pervades.

Some members of the audience will demonstrate a strong desire for the script. A couple of days of additional exposure will make them facilitators.  As new facilitators emerge, symposiums become more numerous and the process accelerates. A note about facilitators… angels in sackcloth, misfits and mad poets all make excellent facilitators, but there’s really no ideal type. Advertising executives and soccer moms/dads, elementary students, retirees, stock brokers – basically any articulate human has the capacity to facilitate.

•••

Last night my nephew texted me about my weekend of environmental training – what was it all about? I passed him the ATD trailer link but he was still baffled. I didn’t know what to tell him, how to give the gestalt. Hence the above post, my first independent assimilation exercise. ‘Script’ is my shorthand by the way, ATD folks call it the symposium materials.

Here’s one highlight. 34 of us spent the weekend working through the material and on the last day we broke into groups to practice presenting.  Nancy, Majandra, Keith, Darelyn and myself worked with Geri. As we took turns presenting, our unique talents and gifts were suddenly activated. We stumbled over the text and gaffed a bit, but underneath it all there was resonance. We had an enhanced quality of presence, we were upgraded.

Keith and I talked it over afterwards – it was the Earth. I have been actively practicing flowing Earth energy, feeling alive, being an Earth agent – but this was a new experience. The pages and pages of symposium material are the Mother’s point of presence. It’s not mere human gabble, science this and opinion that. It’s a direct connection, something I thought only existed in wilderness. My fellow presenters and I were amplified by offering it. Earth can speak to us directly, using actual symbolic language. Earth can make it’s own memes. Damn!

Holographic scenes are trembling moments of pure gestalt. Put them in a sequence and call that a movie.  Perhaps an alternate sequence reveals more. If you play it backward you hear, “I buried Paul.”

I’m imagining a burst of experience that also has a whole story inside it, everything is there.

Won’t a series of holographic scenes feel repetitive, like we are saying the same things over and over again? What if the things we are saying in each scene are slightly different. One thing about people is their layered motivation. I don’t shoot you because I hate you, that’s like so totally impoverished. I shoot you because I burnt my toast this morning AND you’re a brutal serial rapist AND you remind me of my older brother who I loved but was killed in the war then my parents kept his room like a shrine AND my girlfriend want’s to get married though I don’t really love her AND I dreamt of red roses last night AND…

It’s the layers of motivation that give the story depth. They can be completely separate tracks, none alone sufficient to prompt action, but together – viola!

What the hell is xroll? What if it’s not a gimmick, but a central organizing principle? It’s thoughts and experience, something like the memories of Spotless Mind and the dream sequences of Brazil. There’s symbolism and layers of meaning, but xroll doesn’t have to resolve in the sense that everything is sewed up nice and neat, it just has to evoke. Resolution is an evocation, everything comes together and wham, there’s an emotion there. The typical Hollywood resolution is “Yippee, we won!” Think about Casablanca, that resolution was bitter sweet comradely cynicism between Rick and the french cop. Dude, layers of emotion, complexity.

A turbocharged vignette that serves up an emotional cocktail to nuance the next moment, flows from xroll. After Effects verite, magical realism in motion.

A plot is the structure that sequences events, yes/no? No – a plot exists however the events are sequenced. Humans have a strong temporal sensibility, even if the events are out of order, we’ll put them back in sequence. On second thought, yes – maybe a plot is a structure that sequences events, maybe what we call plots are just applications of temporal sensibility. This scene leads to this scene which leads to this scene… we’ll find a plot given enough chunks.

If we think of xroll as the spine of the narrative, then perhaps the actual traveling and scenes of same are extensions of it. Xroll contrasts to b-roll in that it’s central as opposed to peripheral. It’s what we keep returning to, the continuity. In ALM, are the sailing moments Xroll? The best part of the trip certainly, the core of the adventure. Why not?

Looks like a script is about to happen, the old index card shtick.

Holographic scenes… moments which taste of eternity, fragments that contain the whole. Xroll… the threads between the scenes, revelations of the underlying fabric of reality.

I’m skating the edge of confusion and rapture here. If the above sounds like blather, there’s a 50% chance it is.

Good Earth, have you been reading the recent posts from http://ondesire.com and http://holyboners.com? I have – and they are beginning to spin out of control. Some sort of fugue state is being entered into here, so many eggs are cracking wide I expect there’s one heck of a mega omelet on the horizon. I haven’t even done my review of Cameron’s Avatar in 3D or last night’s dinner with my favorite Africans. Let’s get this sorted out right now.

The Questions

What are my objectives for the two current projects?

What’s my plan to finish them / take them to the next level?

The Answers

I’ve got a mission, so let’s start there, Activating global consciousness to steward and expand the wilds. It’s a good mission, and one would expect my current projects to be in alignment. How then do these two movie projects support my mission?

1.0 Mission

1.1 DOG

Daughter of God is my most ambitious narrative project to date. It’s a surreal exploration of how picturesque and hilarious a crippled global life support system can get. The backstory also explores colonization and exploitation on a planetary scale. With this project I model my theories, channeling the answers to the questions that Fia asked last night – who benefits from the demise of an entire planet? Follow the money, follow the extraction of wealth. Who’s targeting all the world saviors, whose running this prison?

So Daughter of God is a vehicle for piercing the veil. It’s a way of figuring some things out, of playing with the story. Ah, there’s an insight.

What if the story has fragments, alternate eddies and branches? What if the edit is actually scrambled up to suggest alternate possibilities, variant explanations, visions beyond the existing narrative where all the backstories intermingle and cross pollinate? Y’all getting this? That’s how we rebuild the edit, with intersecting time lines and outcomes. Moments that suggest, fragments.

That means that the best moments are extracted and then interwoven as flash sidewise or parallel possibility, while remaining perfectly ordinary, like brushing teeth. Little diversion this, but worthy.

In summary, DOG supports the mission by being a way to better understand what might actually be going on in RL, suggest in ways like the i ching, never the same movie twice, ya get me? Got cha.

1.2 ALM

Seeking the artifacts of a future sustainable civilization is pragmatic action. No external authority is going to assemble our optimal existence and conveniently implode. We are responsible, I am responsible. The future surrounds us, fragments of annihilation and transcendence for the taking. We choose what we gather, I choose. That’s ALM, humans taking responsibility for our collective destiny, one Dan at a time. An adventure of autonomy and connection, of becoming miraculous and capable of planet saving. A hero’s journey waiting for each of us.

It’s about me, as Andrea pointed out, and my reinvention disguised as a sailing trip. Is it universal? Does it translate beyond boats and big lakes? Only if folks share my starting point. They don’t have to agree, they just have to get me. Stepping back, I realize that I am a character in this story.

The Dan Kelly character has a premise, aspirations, a costume, a budget, skills, assumptions, experience and a history. What do we need to know about him so that we can travel with him, suspend our disbelief, make his joy and pain our own?

He is a treehugger, an artist, a science fictionary, a warrior, a lover, a mystic, a caretaker, a technologist, a dreamer, a visionary. My character needs to be introduced to the audience, my character wants something badly and is having trouble getting it, my character undergoes a transformation. Don’t we all?

In summary, ALM supports the mission because it’s about what happens when WE decide to thrive. As my glorious destiny relies on the repair and care of the global life support system, I must become capable of healing planets. I must discover and eventually implement sustainable civilizations. If these epic outcomes are beyond the scope of my present self, then I must purposefully transform and become miraculous. That is the journey worth taking, the true and vital journey of ALM, common to all.

Epilogue

Many folks will find the premise crazy, so I’ve got to make a solid case that my character actually believes that he can develop extraordinary abilities and has ‘evidence’ to support it. Then even if they think my character is crazy, they’ll go on the journey with him. This crazy character will venture out to become a super hero and the surprise ending will be – maybe he was not so crazy after all.

The audience attitude might begin with ‘the poor delusional fellow is captivating’ then gradually progress to ‘wait, maybe he’s making sense’ and finish with ‘whoa, where do I sign up?’ It’s a cognitive hack for extracting folks from the suicidal hypnosis of dominant culture. Start them off with the idea that they are watching a crazy person running amuck, then give them cause to question that premise and in so doing examine their assumptions about what it means to be rational in a culture bent on apocalypse. Wonko the Sane lived outside the asylum (and he got his movie made).

I scanned and posted the audience feedback cards within a week of the Evening of Exploration, but over a month went by before I read and sorted them into categories. Why did it take so long? This question triggered a small crisis – Am I loosing momentum on the ALM project? Do I have a plan? What have I accomplished in the 3 months since the end of the trip?

This is one of those exciting blog moments where I have to grope around for a bit. Flashback!

October – December 2009

In early October Hello World and I returned home with about 30 hours of HD video. During the next two weeks I converted the video, shot a visual inventory and edited Evolution, the repair and packing sequence. I sorted, cleaned and stored all the gear. Hitching a ride back to Brooklyn with my brother Steve on 10/20, I settled down to catalog the video and post excerpts to the ondesire blog. Was there a feature length documentary lurking in there somewhere?  In theory, a methodical review of the raw material would allow major themes to percolate.

Watching the video and seeing all the folks who supported ALM started me fantasizing about throwing a big party. I also wanted to introduce more of my Northern Michigan tribe to the project and expand it’s audience. I imagined organizing an event around a rough cut of the movie and including structured feedback both to foster interaction and create a sense of participation. I was planning to return to to Northern Michigan for Thanksgiving anyway, maybe a month was enough time to plan an event and cut a rough…

The Evening of Exploration was born!

Turns out that 1 month was not enough time to become familiar with all the footage, edit something coherent AND organize / promote a public exhibition. I dedicated a lot of energy to getting the theater filled – repeatedly emailing the scattered tribe, blogging, creating enticing imagery and composing press releases. To expand and diversify the audience, I invited Gretchen Eichberger to present choreography and the ukulele duo Saldaje (Melonie Steffes and Shawn Anchak) to play music. The price I paid for a nearly full theater was less time for editing.

Sweating bullets that the bumpy NYC to Chicago Amtrak ride would ding the stack of sata hard drives humming at my feet, I finally found a decent introduction – only four days before the Evening. My brother and sister helped me hash out a protocol for audience feedback in the rental car from Chicago to Beulah. Over the holiday, I grappled with the stark realization that my rough cut would NOT be the kernel of a coherent structure, but rather a smorgasbord of loosely connected ideas.

The Evening was fun and I reconnected with many excellent people. My original objectives were achieved to varying degrees…

Celebrate those who helped with the project

Seeing themselves onscreen often makes folks excited. Just being invited to a special event is nice too, especially if there’s food and  interesting art. I could’ve done a better job of recognizing the collaborators if the movie had credits and / or if I mentioned specific names during my introduction. Basically, that didn’t happen because I ran out of time.

Connect regional folks to the project, build community support and awareness

It’s been over a month since the evening, so if I am planning on following up and consolidating this audience, I had better do it in the next couple of days. The evening did facilitate a productive feedback session with Steve Elrick. Also, a fantastic new friend and ally has appeared as a direct result of the Evening’s intense promotion. Andrea Maio is a film maker who missed the Evening but tracked me down after. We had a blast hanging out and she has since decided to relocate to Benzie County. I’ll be linking to her blog as soon as it’s up. Finally, Susan Koenig wrote an article about the Evening that may or may not have appeared in the Benzie Record Patriot, I’m still waiting to hear.

Get some structured feedback

I threw a variety of material at the audience, curious only to know what stood out, what made an impression. My feedback protocol wasn’t all that rigorous because the editing had barely begun. The responses were useful, the same five moments were mentioned by 52% of the audience. Several folks disregarded my instructions and offered detailed advice about editing and some even felt compelled to trot out their personal angst… awesome! I am so grateful for the responses, the only people I have a beef with are those that didn’t bother to fill out cards – like my brother and father. Geez, relatives can be a real pain.

Deadline motivates

Setting an intense deadline was both good and bad.

Rather than taking that the time to move methodically through the video, I was forced to slam together disparate fragments just to have something to show. This deferred the real edit process by a month. As the Evening got closer, I felt very scattered and struggled to let go of my expectations. I fretted that telling a disjointed story would actually deter the audience from following ALM’s progress. Key elements of the event were scaled down or abandoned because time was tight.

I am only now recovering from the trauma of promising a little too much.  Deadlines are productive only when matched to specific outcomes well within the range of the possible. Deadlines can have an element of risk, they can stretch our identity and push our personal envelope – a little. Finessing the balance between what we are and what we want to be is the art of the setting deadlines. It’s wise to take an inventory of variables first – how many new things will have happen at once? Even for a turbo charged polymath, attempting more than 2 new things is asking for trouble.

The Evening would have been a better if I had conceptualized the event as presenting ‘selected excerpts’, rather than promising a ‘rough cut’. The problem was in my own mind, most folks don’t know the difference between selected excerpts and a rough cut anyway. Crazy expectations caused me to wig out.

December 2009 – January 2o1o

I whiled away another 2 weeks in Beulah before renting a Hyundai and returning to Brooklyn. Once back, I bit the bullet and dropped $2000 on 20 x 1 TB hard drives for cloning my archive. I need about 6 drives more to finish, but at least now I can travel with ALM. I finally tallied the feedback results and posted some comments. Andrea suggested a new tack for the project that I like. I’ve been reorganizing the blogs in preparation for the next push and feel the power flowing back. So maybe I am not groping anymore.

What does memory look like? What do thoughts look like? What is the magic ingredient that makes reality real?

I dunno.

Let’s make some language. We’ve already got B roll, an antiquated term for supplementary footage used to cover audio edits in an interview. The concept of turbo charged B roll is experimental, so let’s call it exroll or xr, cause it sounds cool and avoids controversy about pronunciation later, (is it zeeroll or exeroll?).

So what do we need to make xr? Here’s what clobbered me in the Barnes and Noble yesterday – I’d like to be able to code visually again as in the bygone days of Director and Lingo. I’d like to be able to deal with a variety of media. I’d like the host application to be open source. Can you say – Open Source After Effects? Not yet? So it looks like I am stuck with After Effects.

After Effects is pretty great, and it’s got Javascript built in – expressions. I’ve already experimented with algorithmic animation in AE, so I’ve got a clue what’s possible.

Now we’ve got another piece of the puzzle. I just sent Patrick back with some After Effects tutorials, we’ll see how far he gets. I need lots of rotoscoping done for DOG, but now I’ve got another reason to climb the AE learning curve, XR. It’s almost time to start recruiting.

I had a flash today while listening to a Democracy Now report on http://storycorps.org, a huge oral history project catching the compelling eloquence of regular folks. That’s sort of what ALM is about too – finding extraordinary answers to global survival in ourselves.

I was thinking how cool it would be to visualize Storycorp histories with maybe animation or collage. It could be fun to listen to these stories and make sketches, to draw what came to mind and then match the sketches to the audio later. There’s power enough in the human voice alone, especially when the speaker is recorded in a dark room without the distractions of camera, bright lights and staring interviewer. With a shift to the internal world, memory playback becomes more vivid and descriptions more intense and compelling.

The brilliant colors that fire in the dark theater of imagination could be rediscovered. Rather than complementing narrative audio with contextual b-roll or a sync shot of the head that’s talking, interviews could be illustrated from inside that head. Then it hit me, this is the enhanced b-roll idea I need for the ALM interviews.

Backstory – While talking to Steve Elrick about his thoughts on the November 28 ALM sneak preview, I proposed the idea of enhanced b-roll for the interviews. I’ve got these heads talking and some cutaway imagery to edit to (b-roll), but we’ve seen all that before. It’s the same old, here’s the talent speaking and here’s some contextual shots to cover the edits. But what if there were b-roll custom built from scratch that took the moment to another level? What if we could see what the talent saw, an impressionistic glimpse of the talents own experience? Is this an opportunity to innovate the whole technique of b-roll beyond present art, redefine b-roll? Perhaps…

So here’s how I can start. I identify the audio for the segments I want to use and sketch some new visuals, forgetting completely about the live action. I can pull from the vast vocabulary of animation and live action to visualize them – cell, collage, clay, 3D, visual remix. I could recruit a slew of visual artists to help, especially my talented visual friends currently sucking wind in the not yet recovered economy. Viola, turbo b-roll. Illustrate it as if it were oral history, that’s the ticket. Make art, yay!

The “evolution” of Hello World is already leaning in this direction. The stop action treatment works, folks like it. Andrea said it was projected my delightful personality more accurately than my actual live action improvs. Sounds like a direction to me.

09-09-05 Hello World Evolution (newer OS)
09-09-05 Hello World Evolution (older OS)

A feature film in 5 days? A engaging, edifying, feature film in 5 days? How much sencha green tea will it take?

Finally, the video the network has been clamoring for! The dynamic duo of digestion, Chris and Tanya Winkelman and the origins of Homegrown. It all started with a breakfast burrito the day after arriving in Grand Traverse Bay.

09-09-13 Chris and Tanya Winkelman Homegrown (newer OS)
09-09-13 Chris and Tanya Winkelman Homegrown (older OS)

Gretchen and I are excited to welcome Saldaje to our Evening of Exploration. Shaun and Melonie do some spooky and magical things with ukuleles.

Two – count ‘em – two new chapters are available for your viewing pleasure, both documenting my two night sojourn on North Manitou Island. Disasters and blessings interpenetrate.

09-09-09 Crescent City under Hello World (newer OS)
09-09-09 Crescent City under Hello World (older OS)

09-09-10 North Manitou Becalmed (newer OS)
09-09-10 North Manitou Becalmed (older OS)

Have I written about this yet, or have I just thought about writing about it? I admit I’ve been inventing open source filmmaking in a vacuum, I am only slightly aware of what other filmmakers are doing on this front. I’ll eventually plug into all the social networking juice associated with open source film projects, but for now I remain blissfully ignorant, aside from the original inspiration of Robert Greenwald’s Rethinking Afghanistan. Actually, another important early influence was the Rebel’s Guide forum, where production strategies are shared.

What is Dan Kelly’s vision of open source filmmaking? So far three facets – chronicle, outreach, and get naked.

Chronicle

It’s about chronicling the process on this blog and connected channels – Twitter and Linked in for example. Even if nobody reads my ramblings, taking the time to communicate what’s going on helps me to focus and clarify my vision. As I take on more ambitious outcomes, I begin to walk the less traveled path. If there are other artists out there with related outcomes, perhaps they’ll improve their chances of success by learning about my exploits. If those folks and I connect and communicate, that’s nirvana. I am one neuron and the blog variations are my synapses, snaking out towards other neurons. You can make a brain by networking lots of neurons. Essentially, open source film making is one way to become part of something bigger, to amplify and extend myself.

Outreach

That snaking pseudopodia part is important. As I mentioned above, it’s great to be a closet scribbler, that’s how Stephen King got his start after all. Eventually King had to slither out of his closet, he must have shared his work with friends and eventually editors. Without slithering, where would Stephen King be? One must learn to slither and ooze… what ho! Here’s the internet.

Oozing is a great word I think, because the internet is a universe of jagged dross. Spam and old school marketing schemes have inflexible edges meant to slice and tear, to force action. On the world wide web, incessant avalanches of edgy memes whirl and flash. Cognitive armor seems essential for extended surfing. Had enough metaphors? Bear with me… in RL surfing implies water. Water can’t be cut with a knife – it just gets out of the way.

Savvy neurons fluidly slide past sharp edges while expanding connections with oozed out extensions. These extensions are not hooks or bait, they are the neuron itself, awareness. Neurons flow into their surround, questing softly like spilled water on a level table. If water meets water, little puddles become bigger puddles, and the ocean of intelligence grows. Need some practical applications of how oozing works? On an online forum, only humans can enter. Having a persistent and relevant presence is the only way to network with the other humans there. That’s oozing… a sparkling puddle gently spreading. Oozing puddles are only good for making bigger puddles, so there’s no point in attempting a call to action or trying to motivate them.

I am sure this seems like a wild half baked digression, but outreach is not code for marketing. Making the distinction is important because we can’t afford to have ineffective outreach, the stakes are very high. Marketing harks back to the days of manipulating behavior and that’s the root of our problems on Planet Earth. Rather than manipulated behavior, let’s build a foundation on expanded consciousness. whoa.

Get Naked

Admit it, you skipped down to this part. Ok, maybe you started to read about the neural network, but that was boooring! So here we are, about to get naked.

Am I all about quality? Sure. Do I care about details and subtlety? I like to think so. Am I crafting a sublime aesthetic? You betcha! Well, screw all that – we are going open source!

Sharing the process goes beyond writing, it means providing access to a good portion of the raw footage. Sure some editing and assembling to illustrate the main ideas, but don’t get too precious, don’t fret about perfection. That’s what it means to get naked – to expose your bare essence to the scrutiny of the world. No polish or preening, no flowing mumu to hide my fat butt, no makeup or mousse. Just the raw sinewy meat, wrapped in glowing skin. Me, me… beautiful me!

This means that the work can be immediately available if activists or educators need it. It means I rough out ideas rapidly. It means others can give feedback and enhance the work. It’s an access point for collaborators to contribute. It’s gives the project a presence and buzz before the release. It’s a little more like what science is supposed to be, while retaining all the power of art. I keep finding things I like about this approach, now that I’ve gotten over being stark naked 24/7.

Drawbacks? Being stark naked is a little scary, but it helps that I am fit and svelte. I’ve got a nice body and by analogy my project is fun and engaging. So why not? Another problem is all that ownership crap, rights etc. In theory, Creative Commons protects the project from exploitaton by commercial entities. Another issue might be my eligibility for film festivals that dig the whole world premier schtick. My only defense there is that I am not posting my final edit, only sketches. If that doesn’t fly, then c’est live. Festivals serve the mission, not the other way around.

That’s my latest spiel on open source film making and why I am doing it. I think I may be repeating myself a little but that’s a habit I had even before I started turning into an old coot.

A sacred place on a sacred day, North Manitou Island, 09/09/09. Ponderings on turning back, being myself and ending the war against wisdom, aka consumption by becoming poetry incarnate.

09-09-09 Crescent City on North Manitou Island (newer OS)
09-09-09 Crescent City on North Manitou Island (older OS)

Just before launching last month, I took some pictures of the waste generated from Hello World’s renovation. Getting her ready required power, raw material and room in the landfill. Around Lake Michigan is a search for sustainable civilizations that utilized unsustainable technologies. That’s seems contradictory, was ALM a sham?

Renovating this boat took resources, it had a footprint. Was it a large or a small footprint? Until the final budget is tallied, there’s no real data to examine. That should be ready in the next few days, but in the meantime, I’ll elaborate on the premise.

Big Bear points out that wind turbine and solar panel factories are powered by coal and nuclear plants. That’s a significant footprint. He also suggests that solar panels cannot break even, they can never generate enough electricity to pay for their cost. If one takes into account their carbon and toxic cost as well as their monetary price, he might just be right. I don’t know. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that there was such a thing as a profitable solar panel, that after 10 years of operation, it would pay it’s total cost (carbon, toxic, monetary) back twice. That would mean that the panel paid for itself and paid for a second panel. If that were possible, wouldn’t it make sense to make these panels? We would be investing energy to make more energy, rather than just burning it up.

Hello World is an experiment and a sort of calculation. I create a solar powered transportation platform (sailboat) with a finite investment of energy and materials while generating a byproduct of garbage and carbon. I then sail 300 miles making minimal additional impact, finding and documenting low impact or perhaps even sustainable technologies and strategies. What would have to happen for Around Lake Michigan to break even and pay back the inital investment? If I never sail Hello World again, if I never find anything of value or I never share the documentation, what did those 300 miles cost? How far would I have to sail to make a ‘profit’? What would I need to find?

Perhaps just the process of calculation and accountability is enough of a discovery. We tend to think that sailboats and solar panels are easy on the earth, same goes for organic food and compact florescent bulbs. We shirk our responsibility by embracing generalizations rather than actually finding out for ourselves. It’s the training we’ve been given since birth – buy stuff. That’s the plug we’ve got to pull.

Anyway, I’m going through the posts and fleshing them out. The video is fully digested and ready to edit and post. Can’t wait to see where it’s all gonna go!

Here’s an excerpt with Larry Kinney discussing Harmony Home Construction, recorded on Elberta Beach, a few hours before I launched. Having Larry’s energy around was a huge gift, but to pull off an interview with him too? Bonus!

There are seeds in my landfill lifestyle, seeds of change, seeds of a fuzzy future utopia. If we poke around, can we find some pre-sprouted possibility, can we find the incarnate potential, a hint of what IT might look like?

Around Lake Michigan there are mad experiments, noble projects, impractical dreams, pragmatic miracles. Scattered all around the planet in equal distribution. The shores of Lake Michigan are no different than any other place on earth when it comes to magic seeds. The kingdom of heaven is spread upon the earth and man does not see it. Tell me about it.

Get a trickster out there, a cwazy wabbit and look through his eyes. A sproutatarian, an animal magentized to the new shoots, the green life. Moi. If green means anything, it means fresh. Electrically luminous from rain, glowing with vibrant near knowing.

Forget the doublespeak abstraction of green that means just about whatever the marketers want it to, nothing. All natural, green – words that have had all the love sucked out of them, processed and nullified to serve the consuming civilization, the self consuming and nullifying anti-life.

So soup me, it’s late! Rather than sleeping, I see the shining moon and prepare to check the list. Shouldn’t be blogging, too much hot truth from a dizzy core dump.

Queue voice over by Rod Serling or Leonard Nimoy… not Twilight Zone or Star Trek, but the 70′s Cousteau docs of Serling’s and the 80s ‘In Search Of’ series hosted by Nimoy. Sustainable Civilizations has a mythic ring. They are not lost in the hoary past like some lame Indiana Jones sequel but rather waiting for us in an alternate future, a misty maybe world we must bring into razor sharp focus. It’s epic in the sense that we are running out of time. If we don’t find a path to a highly sustainable reality lickity split, we’re gonna suffer some serious trauma and maybe worse – extinction. No amount of military spending can protect you from a crippled global life support system. If you really love your grandchildren, change your life style. And so on.

Can we peer into the mists and make out some outlines of a sustainable human scenario? How would we change and will it be fun? What do we really want anyway? The tie in between our desire and our destiny is solid, what we want or think we want determines what we move toward.

I like wilderness. My personal mission is…

Activating global consciousness to steward and expand the wilds.

The way I see it, the global life support system includes the atmosphere, oceans, plants, algae, fungus, wild animals of all stripes, volcanos, rocks… It is certainly quite ancient, very sophisticated and complex – regardless whether one believes it’s designed by natural selection or a personal god.

The current configuration of cities, suburbs and strip malls and their associated infrastructure are probably not contributing to the proper function of the global life support system. That’s why my mission bucks the inevitable trend of building more stuff – I want to expand the wilds. Why? Because the wilds comprise an efficacious global life support system. When the earth has dominion over the land and seas, you can count on breathable air, potable water and reasonable temperatures. Human occupation and management as it’s currently configured hasn’t worked out all that well in the long term.

If you meet someone who doubts that humans can influence the global climate, check their stock portfolio. Chances are there’s some fossil fuel or uranium investments, probably defense industries too. Think about it – 6 billion people is a huge force, especially when augmented by machines. Is there anything we can’t do? Altering the climate of an entire planet? Childs play.

Relying on a government / corporate driven tech fix is not an option – some bogus half assed boondoggle porkbarrel scam slathered with a thick icky sweet icing of propagandertainment. Let’s just give it back to the ultimate technology, the 4 billion year old supra genius mutha. Let HER bring it back online for heavens sake, before it’s too late.

If you’ve been checking in at On Desire, you know I am not one of those ‘human beings are a cancer’ type. I’m not advocating ‘kill all humans’. For me it’s about figuring out how we fit into the global life support system.

We can take a little tech with us, certainly. Landing on the moon was cool, but for my money the best thing we’ve come up with lately is the internet. It’s a mostly harmless way to stimulate the brain and other parts. It’s got a footprint, but it get’s us all connected in a way that works for me. We can collaborate directly. I vote to keep the internet.

So it’s not about having 6 billion farmers either. Sustainable civilizations are a mystery we can solve, but it’s going to be much more juicy, enigmatic and elegant than anything yet described by the mainstream media. It’s to funky for the hollywood formula. We’ve got to make it, ourselves. We’ve got to do it together.

How does this apply to Around Lake Michigan? I am creating a bit of a spectacle with the lowest impact tools currently at my disposal, a sustainable moon landing or Jacques-Yves Cousteau riff. It’s a little kooky, it’s Dan Kelly style. Asking the right questions is what this is about, asking as if I expect there to be an answer. Ask questions in that way and the hazy horizon get’s a little bit brighter.

Bold = got
Underline = gotta get

Hobie

flares
horn
submersible VHF
running lights
new sails (ordered from Whirlwind)
solid fenders for rocky beach and marinas
new shrouds
spare rudder and hardware
etc.
power

airmarine (wind power)
agm battery

Repairs

fiberglass hulls
grommets and hiking strap on trampoline √

Diving

refresher course
regulator (checked and tuned) √
wetsuit
fins
harness
booties
mask
snorkel
tank (hydrostat test) √

Movie

* Camera A *
purchased 05-06/09

√ (1) Canon Vixia HF S10 $1300
√ (2) BP819 3 hour batteries $80 x 2 = $160
√ (1) Canon CG-800 charger
√ (2) Tiffen 82 mm white water HT glass $108 – lens protection for wide angle, on camera and extra
√ (2) Tiffen 38 mm white water glass $50 – lens protection when not using wide angle, on camera and extra
√ (1) Century Optics DS-55WA-58 wide angle and fisheye $259 – panoramic shots and tight interiors eg sauna, ship cabins, cars
√ (1) Century Optics DSFA8200 retangular sunshade  w/82 thread $149
√ (1) Juicedlink Phantom Power XLR adapter CX231 $299 – for use with professional microphones and to split audio channels
√ (1) carbon fiber monopod (converted boom fishpole) $100
√ (1) BP807 1 hour batteries - included with camera
√ (1) Kingston Technologies MobileLite card reader ~$20.00
√ (1) Delkin Technologies 16 gb class 6 SDHC ~$40
√ (1) Bowers 58-62 step up ring ~$7
√ (1) Bowers 62-82 step up ring ~$10

*Camera B*

(1) Canon Vixia HF S100 (Camera B) $989
(2) BP819 3 hour batteries $80 x 2 = $270
(1) HD6 Equinox underwater housing $899
(1) small carbon fiber tripod – sticks and head
(1) Century Optics +7 Acromatic Diopter $200

(2) Lectrosonics 400C Series Lavalier Microphone System $2837 x 2 = $5674
UCR411 Portable Receiver
MM400 Watertight Transmitter *
M152 Omnidirectional Lavalier

* Post *
√ (1) Macbook Pro 15 2.4 Intel Core Duo
√ (1) Sonnet Tempo Sata ExpressCard/34
√ (1) Sonnet Fusion F2 portable SATA drive 640 gb $250

(1) small shotgun with windscreen
(1) wind screen solution for Vixia on-board mics
(1) rain enclosure for camera

(1) Brunton Solaris 52 solar panel $679
(1) Brunton Solo 15 battery and inverter $353

(1) lens cleaning kit w/rocket blower
(1) clandestine camera carry solution – no “steal me” cases
(1) waterproof case for electronics

Health / Hygiene

(1) Banyan Botanicals Immune Support
(1) Chin wan hung – chinese burn medicine
(1) Wan hua oil
(1) Bone water
(3) oz Sencha Green Tea
(1) lb Buchu
(1) Myrrh Gum
(1) Oregano Oil
(10) oz Grain alcohol
(1) Aspirin
(2) Melatonin
(2) CoQ10
(2) DIM
(1) Dr Hauksha’s sun block

Trek

Seal Line Black Canyon 115 (dry bag large)
Seal Line Seal Pak (dry bag small)
backpack internal frame
tent – light hammock or heavier dome
sleeping bag
alcohol stove and small fuel bottle
pot and spoon
ceramic water filter

Midland 75-822 CB radio $78.74
Firestik II FG2648-B no ground plane antennae kit $76.39

Kai is in the house! We’ve been doing a lot of undocumented talking phonewise.

Kai isn’t totally comfortable with posting full names of collaborating individuals, he want’s to protect their privacy. He’s also reluctant to release the On Desire blog to the world. He likes the idea of keeping it low key so that we can be more free with our experimentation.

In contrast, I’ve got no problem using the full names of my people and even throwing in history and context. The point of launching a blog is to communicate – to engage and tell a story. My journey is not primarily about boats, but about sharing my exploration of sustainability with as wide an audience as possible.

It appears we have fundamental philosophical rifts. That’s great – what’s a narrative without conflict? We’ve already had a slight rift on jetting and are sorting out a focus mismatch. I’ve cleared my summer (June – September) to do On Desire.  Kai’s wedged the project in between sailing gigs and will be shifting his energy to a client’s boat by August 22. We’ve got about three weeks left of schedule overlap. To pull this off, we need to sync our focus for the next three weeks.

Wait a second Dan,  Desire is stuck in the yard and you are not even in Hawaii! The premise of the project is toast, what can you guys do at this point? Ah, friends… we can make magic – beyond geography, budget and schedule. We initiated this project because we’ve both got some serious cosmic mojo going on. What the earth needs is folks figuring out how to activate their mojo, and that’s what’s for dinner right here and now at On Desire. Good stuff.

Watch us work this.

I was just commenting on Telemetry 090630 and I realized my comment was worthy of it’s own post. Kai and I are a few steps past this now, but you can’t practice fundamentals too much.

> It seems, for ideological reasons as he won’t fly in a jet due to it’s carbon footprint.
> I can respect his convictions though I don’t fully adopt them as my own.

It’s all Jeff Gibb’s fault! Well, Al Gore too, but for opposite reasons. I ramble about this all over the site, start with these dubious calculations…

http://www.ondesire.com/2009/06/13/on-jets/

At the risk of ranting, here’s my riposte. I can’t count on governments or corporations to do what’s right by me and by the earth. The only way to change anything is to get conscious and take personal responsibility for my actions – identify my most harmful behaviors and stop doing them.

The ends don’t justify the means. On Desire is not a worthy project if we have to act in destructive ways to accomplish it. Unless you are Kai Schwarz, getting to Hawaii sustainably ain’t easy. He can do it because he’s got the skills and knowledge to get on boats or sail his own. I could probably get on boats by leveraging my production skills and starting earlier on the research.

Granted, there are cruise ships that make the passage a few months out of the year, but because there is theoretically less carbon footprint riding a cruise ship, the cash cost is higher! Most folks who want to go to Hawaii HAVE to ride jets. Hawaii’s tourist industry is a frikkin’ carbon factory.

Sustainability isn’t an abstract concept. What does a small footprint look like? For one thing, it’s small!

Kai has been keeping a log of his exploits since arriving in Hawaii and setting up Desire, but since he hasn’t had reliable internet enabled computation, contributing to the On Desire blog has been problematic. Mostly we talk on the phone and then I post an overview. Within the next week,  Apple’s Macbook Pro will arrive in Kona and Kai will be able to transfer his log to this blog. Yesterday Kai bought a Panasonic SDR SW20 waterproof camcorder. Both the camera and laptop should arrive about the same time. With his notes and new camera, we can expect a significant blog expansion.

I have not really defined the idea of sustainable. Sustainable basically means ‘repeat indefinitely’. Can a behavior, action or practice be repeated indefinitely?

We’ve got this big planet, but it’s not infinitely big. The global life support system – do we even understand how the whole thing works? Can we break it? Can we learn how to maintain it? Do we have the tools, the right approach?

I don’t have the answers to these questions. So rather than take the chance that I might mess up the system, I minimize or eliminate my influence on it. I choose behaviors, actions and practice that can be repeated indefinitely. It’s up to each individual to make the move toward sustainability, we each have to live it and then the governments and corporations will follow along. Green is a nice color, but how does one get green? Sustainable is a clear concept – indefinitely repeatable – that can be applied to every aspect of life. It reveals.

I’m still in Beulah waiting for news from container ship companies. The idea is to ride one of the big ships from California to Hawaii, documenting operations and ask – is container transport sustainable? The current iteration of the global economy is dependent on containers, so that’s a great question. Here’s to imminent news of a productive shipper collaboration.

Moon over Crystal introduces Tuesday. An oft snapped scene ever entrancing.

Another week in full tilt at the water temple. The Hobie renovation support team arrives in about 3 hours. For the moment, sweet silence and the moon.

Been doing a little strategic shoving of local allies, helping to deploy web presences mostly while tapping into the thriving tribal exchange. Mike Murphy traded me Hobie 16 transport for some snaps of his Nature of Stone spokesmodel, Amanda. Artist house provided space and quinoa upama for partner dance lessons, though I am not sure whether I trading with Mykl Werth or Gretchen Eichberger Kudlack.  That’s the people’s economy here in Northern Michigan. Love it. Ties in nicely with holes and On Desire collaborators.

Amanda, spokesmodel for Nature of Stone

We’ve assembled a pretty nifty project with some auspicious holes. Holes are the places collaborators and their products / services go. It started out feeling like magical flim flam, but with a little practice it has shaded into a jamming pragmatica. Ok, a little miraculous and gratitude certainly, gotta have it. What the heck am I rambling on about? Read on.

I’ve designed the production kit around Canon’s Vixia HFS10 / 100. This is a tiny camera that records onto SDHC cards as opposed to tape. Future Kid, “Tape, what’s that?” Old Man, “Well back in the day, cameras used to record sound and images onto spools of tape, ok? I know it sounds wierd, but that’s how it was. Soda jerks. Gasoline powered cars. Monetary based societies.”

Anyway, so the HFS100 is under $1000 -  before you buy all the lenses and XLR adapters that fussy filmmakers feel compelled to have. It’s ideal to have more than one camera, in case one goes over board or to get fancy with multiple angles. Even a modest budget could support 2 or even 3 Vixias. Even though the price is right, buying more Vixias doesn’t necessarily enhance the project. If possible, it’s better to borrow those Vixias. By borrowing, other folks get invested in the project’s objectives and the filmmaker. The project has to be in alignment with collaborators outcomes.

Initially, I had objections to making holes. Here’s one…

Question – If I ask for help to fill my holes, folks might get the impression my project is low budget and not worthy of support.

Answer – First of all, well funded projects do not insure a quality outcome. Variety is chock full of crap movies funded by mega budgets. Second, using money for everything is like banging on screws with a hammer, it’s clumsy and imprecise. Third, no budget is infinite. There’s always a point where the money runs out. A savvy Director understands that a project’s success is not determined by the amount of funds available but rather it’s outcomes, people, and structure. Fourth, money is a very limited (some might say impoverished) method of exchange. It’s more natural for my buddy Mike Murphy to ask me to make photo art with a pretty woman, stones and magic hour. The next thing I knew I’m buying a 1979 Hobie cat with a trailer, but I don’t have a vehicle with a hitch. Mike does and we drag that sucker to my place. Mike and I have known each other long enough to enjoy a robust exchange that includes humor, friendship, favors, and fun. Money is in there once in awhile but affinity is the basis of our relationship. It’s my experience that even in business, robust relationships are never limited by the bottom line.

Morrie Warshawski talks about magnetizing the field. Our mission and the objectives of our project point us towards appropriate collaborators. On Desire collaborators are selected because they jive, there is affinity.

I approached Apple, Inc. first because I’ve used their gear like crazy since 1991. I seem to sense an inherent message in thier products – you are smart. It’s true I am, but how many products realize that about me? Computers are nasty things full of toxins and big footprints and Apple seems to working to minimize this.

Affinity works both ways, something about On Desire magnetized Apple. Did I mention that our loaner Macbook Pro shipped today? Kai will be tickled, the big galoot.

It’s heavy ‘ready to rain’ color today, with a hint of purple / pink peeking through. Back to wearing the wetsuit when swimming deep.  A shy summer so far, teasing warmth at the end of June and now mostly wet with brisk winds. Tree friendly weather. Well, the trees can have whatever they need as far as I am concerned.

Kai is in Honolulu with a cold. He sounds a little discouraged – Desire’s not quite ready. Sheesh!

It takes a courageous soul to sail thousands of miles solo, I’ll grant him that. Freak storms, sleep deprivation, errant cruise ships attempting to convert your boat into slivers of fiberglass… that could be a rush. But try making a movie sometime, me hardy. Now there’s the true measure of a man, arr!

Disappearing in the open water is a clean exit, you’re just gone. Lost at sea. It’s mysterious, romantic even.

In contrast, making a fatal blunder on your movie usually means crowds of crew muttering against you, actors storming off the set, lawyers threatening apocalypse, massive credit card debt, post production hell, a feeling of existential worthlessness, public shame and humiliation…

I’ve got to get out there and whip that whimpering sailor into ship shape. Safety schmafety, let’s make a movie!

PS – Kai has yet to get the Macbook so it’s tough for him to respond to these taunts. For now, call me el Supremo!

July 5 is the deadline for my Hawaiian ride. We’re down to the wire. 11th hour. Time to ship or get off the ops. Now or never. Magic!

In last weeks episode…

Riding the Transpac would have been an exciting and upbeat opening for On Desire. The concept was to present what could be rather than what is – a metaphor for what’s worth striving for. Sailing is a lovely and romantic image for a renewable future. Approaching the Transpac community as a resource for implementing a sustainable society makes sense, though it may be a bit niave. According to Kai, wealthy racers think nothing of making a big footprint with mylar sails and other energy intensive materials if it’ll help them win. These folks are often successful entrenpreneurs thriving on challenge. I wanted to get in with Transpac to explore whether these super successful people could be recruited to take on the most important challenge of our time, survival.

A worthy inquiry for another time. Meanwhile, the present moment. Getting back to what is rather than what could be. Sustainability stands in contrast to what is, it’s a change. My intuition is that change is triggered by awareness of both what is and what could be. To be sustainable, we notice what isn’t. Even if this is not a valid approach, there’s a certain morbid fascination with the apocalyptic circumstances of the present. Am I making a horror movie?

I digress. It should be clear now that finding a ride is the start of the project, it’s not pre-production or incidental. How I get to Hawaii is everything. It’s magic, it’s sustainability – the whole shootin’ match. Flashy sailboats winging across the Pacific is not how the story of sustainability begins. What about starting with anathema – consumption?

The container industry enables the global economy as it’s currently configured. Containers are uniform steel boxes used to transport goods via truck, rail and ship.

Container ships churn out more carbon than cars and possibly more than jets. In one year, the biggest 15 container ships produce more carbon than all the cars on the planet combined. Pollution from container ships burning bunker fuel causes snow melt, desertification and death. All this to stock the shelves of the local big box. Perhaps our story has a sublime start – queue the discordant synth!

Matson and Horizon service Hawaii with container ships. Both companies are proud of their environmental record. How do they compare to the industry in general? Are they implementing stack scrubbers to minimize the impact of bunker fuel? Have they implemented fuel efficient design in their ships’ construction? Would they welcome documentation of their operations? Could we start the story of sustainability in collaboration with these companies?

Once again Dan is manning blog command. Say that 10 times fast.

Location – Artist house, Beulah Michigan
Weather – overcast
Health – excellent
Morale – high
Electricity – plentiful
Food – adequate
Water – abundant
Equipment – functional

There’s a car leaving tomorrow that would get me halfway to California, or at least Chicago and Amtrak. What is wanted is a boat from California to Hawaii. Whether my boat coalesces gently or pops up with shower of sparks makes no never mind to me. Let’s just do this thing, oh mysterious universe. Thanks in advance.

I’ve got a deadline now, Juy 5th. If the passage from California to Hawaii hasn’t manifested by then, we’ll be implementing plan B. Just two other people are privy to the details of plan B – Kai and my nephew Patrick. The very existence of plan B is known only by the readers of this blog. You are special!

Plan B is a synchronistic implementation of Kai’s principle of ‘dream within your means’. Stated simply, to ‘dream within your means’ is to act with what’s on hand and not wait around for circumstances to change. Plan B is an inspired redesign of On Desire that’s as cool (if not cooler) than Plan A. For now though, I’m all about Plan A and the just in time delivery of a ride to Hawaii.

So here I am again, in my well appointed fiberglass barnacle on the edge of paradise behind a chain link fence, only this time no dogs parole the perimeter. Instead of smelling cordite and consumed jet fuel I’ve got whiffs of paint, diesel, vog (volcanic smog) and the occasional sun baked stinky fish dumpster next to the boat ramp wafting to my land bound boat. I’m entrenched here, stuck in barnacle mode, only coming out of my 26 foot shell to feed, crap and occasionally wash.

Captain Zardoz with no sign of angles in the LZ. My ethos is overwhelming my sensibilities. I live by my dreams but have learned to dream within my means and I’ve always made it work out for me (with occasional help from friends and strangers). It’s just a matter of humping it through the rough times to the next shiny valley or coastline beyond this swamp. I’m getting too old for this shit. I’d rather just stay in blissful barnacle mode but I can’t sustain that for more than a few weeks at a time. I have to deal with the other side of my nature which in fluid and transitional. Vagabond, hobo on life’s coat tails or at the helm. I need to move forward in some direction. Any sensible direction. It’s just a matter of packing lightly, picking a direction and not annoying the other passengers (while navigating around the ones that annoy you).

Like I’ve said, I’ve been here before and have gotten through it to the next plateau of my existence. Bernard Motisie understood the fallacy of focusing on a fixed destination. He understood the magic and uniqueness of the moment. The Zen of being involved with the sea and life in general. Honing your craft and your spirit to meet life on it’s own terms in what ever manner it comes to you.

I don’t think Dan’s coming to Hawaii. It seems, for ideological reasons as he won’t fly in a jet due to it’s carbon footprint. I can respect his convictions though I don’t fully adopt them as my own. He’s been trying to hitch a ride on a boat headed this way for the past couple of months. The container lines haven’t returned his call and TransPac left yesterday. My own window for sailing Desire safely back to Seattle  is closing rapidly. Dan’s bought a Hobie Cat and plans on filming while sailing around Lake Michigan this summer.

I asked John to come out to Hawaii to do some of the filming I had planned to do with Dan but it seems like more of a wank-fest at this point that anything. The On Desire project that Dan and I had been whittling, honing and distilling for the last half year or so hasn’t so much been about documenting my own exploits on the water as much as using Desire as a vehicle to get a bigger message out into the world. Namely, using the Hawaii Island chain as a metaphor to explore the questions surrounding sustainability of the planet, humanity and our collective culture as a whole.

So where does this half filled balloon of an idea leave me? Desire’s blue water integrity has been seriously compromised by the elements and by my neglect of her over the past few years. She can still be a viable boat for inter-island travel. This is the minimal state that I would need get her in to do our On Desire project.

But I am having serious doubts about her long distance capabilities. While her rigging and hull appear to be sound, her electrical and mechanical systems are in question. To get her to a state where I would trust her with my life to transverse the 3,000 mile sailing route between Kona and Seattle I would basically have to gut her internal systems and start from scratch.

I have neither the time nor resources to accomplish what is really needed. If I was bull headed enough (and some say I am) I could get her off this rock and pointed towards the Pacific Northwest with little more than sweat and a minimal amount of blood and tears. My biggest concerns are not really with Desire at all. My concerns are with my own ability to spend 35-40 days by myself in a 26 foot leaky boat.

Then there are my concerns about large moving objects. In my previous journeys I was pretty much paralleling and safely trying to offset the tracks of shipping routes. Still, with all possible diligence I nearly got run over twice by ships and once by a fishing vessel not to mention nearly T-boning a 900 foot Korean container ship, dead in the water with no signs of life 80 miles off of San Francisco. Whenever I needed to cross a shipping route I crossed it at a 90 degree angle for 5-10 miles and then continued on my course.  On the track I need to travel the 3,000 mile sailing route between Kona and Seattle I will be crossing the paths of ships going to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. Kind of like an armadillo crossing the interstate.

I don’t ever really have nightmares. It’s the lucid reality based wake-mares that concern me. Even with my radar, marine radar detection system, radios, lights, reflectors, all of my safety and survival gear and well honed nautical senses it’s a crap shoot at best. Ninety percent of what I need to rely on when I have to sleep are my electronics. Even if I outfit ‘Desire’ with the latest AIS system (a localized ship transponder identification system) I have to rely on Desire’s solar panels, wind generator, engine, batteries and switching system to produce, store and channel the power I need to keep her nervous system and senses alive.

In short I feel that Desire has become a very well mannered and distinguished old lady, who shouldn’t (for mercy’s sake) stray too far from the porch without major surgery.

So the working plan now is to salvage what I need from her, box that up and ship it by slow boat to Seattle. Spruce her up as best I can and put her on the market, reestablish some sort of career in Seattle and plan on the next chapter of my life, most likely involving some sort of water born activity.

Yesterday was momentous. Thanks to advice from Christin Shacat I researched the Division 1 and 2 Transpac skippers. I also blasted Apple execs with an inspiring email, strategized with Kai for an hour and implemented Twitter. What’s it all about? Collaboration.

Why collaboration is good…

Certainly our current resources are adequate to make ‘On Desire’. We are blessed with two intelligent, attractive and articulate visionaries – an experienced solo sailer and an almost acclaimed filmmaker. We’ve got a sturdy boat soon to be equipped and supplied for the long haul, a mobile HD production and post-production kit and a modest but adequate operating budget. We’ve also blessed with a vibrant network of excellent friends and family. If all we did was document our discussions and discoveries for a month or two in the 8 seas we’d have a pretty compelling project.

Based on lessons learned from posting DOG, doing it alone is not ideal. To really amp up the fun, we’ve got to add holes! Holes are where the collaborators go.

For example, because Jeff Gibbs has infected me with his no jetting meme, I’ve got to find a boat to Hawaii. That’s not a problem, that’s a hole. Holes create space for collaborators. Finding collaborators for the boat hole has expanded On Desire’s scope. What sorts of boats travel to Hawaii? Container ships and racing sail boats.

Container ships are integral to global trade. What would sustainable global trade look like? Do shipping companies like Matson or Horizon Lines have a vision for sustainable operations? Matson’s parent company, Alexander and Baldwin, Inc. advocates sustainable practice when describing it’s agribusiness, power generation and real estate operations in Hawaii. Reaching out to these companies has become much more than finding a ride, they could become key collaborators in the project.

The Transpac 2009 is starting at the end of June. A fleet of racing yachts will sail from California to Oahu over the course of a couple of weeks. Many of these boats integrate sophisticated design and exotic synthetic materials. They are often skippered by uber successful entrepreneurs in science and business. Since this community is so savvy about harvesting solar power (wind), it’s easy to imagine them contributing mightily to a sustainable future.

Of course, even sailboats make a significant footprint in their construction. I’ll be speaking with the Transpac Commodore later today. I wonder if the racing community recognizes boats that integrate lower energy and less toxic construction techniques and materials? Could boats with dacron sails get a starting advantage over those with mylar sails?

There’s plenty of other holes besides how I get to Hawaii. As a recovering consumer, I choose products that lean toward sustainability. Computers and cameras are a nessisary evil if one wants to make movies, chock full of petroleum, heavy metals and rare earths as they are. Apple products are well designed and built to last, so I’ve invited Steve Jobs and Apple execs to loan On Desire an additional Macbook Pro. There are plenty of other companies I’d enjoy reaching out to for loaners or corporate support, eg Tiffen for a Merlin Steadicam, Vibram for a wrap around pair of Five Fingers, Lectrosonics for watertight radio mics, Canon for a B camera Vixia. I think this differs from traditional product placement because these are products we are already using to meet On Desire’s objectives.

If a collaborator is in alignment with On Desire’s objectives and they are confident we can meet them, they’ll likely sign on. Everywhere I look I see holes, glorious holes!

From:       Dan Kelly
Subject:   Hey Steve!
Date:        June 16, 2009 7:36:07 PM EDT
To:            Steve Jobs, Apple Computer

Hey Steve,

Trust you are doing well. I haven’t been following your progress, have you looked into the Gerson Therapy? There’s a couple of documentaries out there that are intriguing. Please find a way to stick around awhile, you make the earth an more interesting place to live.

I am a filmmaker working on an environmental documentary around the Hawaiian Islands this summer. My collaborator Kai Schwarz needs a new computer, but he’s been busy trying to get our boat in order and hasn’t had much luck with craigslist on the big island. I need him posting his adventures to our project blog asap, so I thought I’d ask you directly. There doesn’t seem to be a official channel at Apple for this sort of request – we don’t work for a school or a non-profit, though we definitely want to share what we discover for the benefit of the planet.

Here’s the blog for our project… http://ondesire.com

In any case, if you have time this summer and feel like hanging with a couple of trouble makers, get in touch. We’ll be dreaming some big dreams aboard Desire and could always use another visionary in the mix.

Much love,

Dan Kelly
231 882-0460

Kai checked in yesterday. Since he had just been blown from San Diego to Tahiti aboard Babalu and then flown to the big island of Hawaii, I was surprised to hear him sounding sort of stressed. Having experienced the big island twice before with my incredible friends Willy and Marijke, I couldn’t imagine any reason to get stressed there. Something must be very wrong. After an update on the plethora of minor disasters and catastrophes that are the spice of any worthy project, he revealed the real reason for the stress. Kai had a PLAN.

Now – there’s nothing wrong with plans, I make them all the time. But trying to make a plan on the big island, especially a plan involving a rigid time component… oops. Don’t ask me to explain, it’s just better to hang loose and take it easy.

Anyway, Kai’s plan had 3 steps. 1) Put Desire back together, 2) sail her around with me and be sure she was ready for serious adventure and 3) sail her back to Seattle. The weather window for safe transit back to Seattle is mid July to the end of August. Immediately, anyone who’s paying attention will be able to spot a problem – he’s got a deadline! If he’s not ready by August, he can’t sail Desire back to Seattle.

Momma Pele’s been helping him to get his mind right with a few gentle reminders. The pickup truck graciously loaned to him by Steve Oliver has developed a fuel line problem, so he’s been blowing precious time sorting that out. Since the volcano’s been erupting a lot, there’s a constant haze of volcanic fog or vog – mostly sulfur dioxide. It’s hell on plastic and rubber. A plastic graduated cup he had stored on Desire was so degraded from exposure to vog that it shattered like glass. That means that all the plastic and rubber on Desire has to be checked and possibly replaced.

He’s also having trouble getting his hands on a computer. Kai has been trying to hook up with a guy selling a Macbook on craigs, but the guy is so laid back he’s hard to get a hold of… that’s Hawaii brah. My recommendation?  Da kine.

IMHO – you can’t be on the big island and act like you’re on the mainland. The laws of physics are not invariable throughout the universe.

Eventually we shifted the conversation to all the cool stuff waiting for us – Jerry Garcia’s diving buoys, the telescopes of Mauna Kea, the rusted wind farm, his buddy Curtis Collins carbon fiber racing boat… I told him about my attempt to crack the Transpac 2009 and he gave me some promising leads.

I think by the end of the conversation his deadline was a little less urgent. It’s going to take whatever time it takes to re-assemble Desire and get her blue water worthy. When that’s done the Seattle weather window will either be open or not. If not then plan B.

What begins to emerge is the demonstration.

Apparently we face big challenges on planet Earth. There are some who claim we’ve passed the point of no return for global climate change. If that’s true then only miracles matter. I don’t have formal training in the sciences but I’ve had some success with miracles. Pardon the repetition – On Desire could be a demonstration of practical magic. I’ve already demonstrated a buyer for my Odyssey and a subletter for the Brooklyn crib. Now I’ve got to manifest a boat to Hawaii soonish – that’s the demo du jour.

If there are a limited number of boats going to Hawaii in the next couple of weeks then I’ve got to get on one. Maybe the boat that I am going to be has yet to exist. Emails and phone calls are a way of focusing and clarifying my creative power. By writing to folks and making inquiries I keep telling the universe, this is what I want. Make it so.

This morning I enjoyed a happy jolt. An email from my new best friend Gord put the Transpac 2009 race (LA – HI) on my radar. Why hadn’t I found it on google two days ago when I searched for ‘transpac’ after stumbling onto the 2008 singlehanded Transpac? Well, things just have to form in their own time… but they are happening. That’s the rub – I have no idea how I am getting to Hawaii but I feel that I will get there. Today I woke up with one more option than I had yesterday, the Transpac 2009. Tomorrow is another day for the universe to do it’s thing. It feels like it’s happening, like a boat to Hawaii is inevitable.

These demonstrations are the proof of concept for truly outrageous miracles. The act of pulling our collective ass out of the fire will likely coincide with an enhanced understanding of human possibilities. We’ll have to learn how to be much more than we currently imagine ourselves to be. By performing the chain of small miracles that enable On Desire, I am training for the really epic manifestations and writing a poetic owners manual for the planet. On Desire could be the story about how I finally decided to take responsibility for being fully human.

This guys been reading too much science fiction, eh? Extrapolation from current circumstances shades into new circumstances. If ideas are templates for realization, then science fiction writers are the architects of the now. There is no such thing as science fiction because it all eventually happens. Science fiction is future history.

I laze. It’s spring at the artist house, lovely. One might conjecture a very slow tourist season hereabouts, what with the end of capitalism and all. Sigh! What a time to be thousands of miles away. A cat eating mackerel in the late afternoon glow.  A silver lake sparkling. Shrug aside the to do list and the clamoring social appointments. Recline in the rocking chair with a laptop to tap on. Bliss. I turned down a tribal sauna for this moment, so you know it’s pretty special.

Life as a practice, cultivating moments of utter rapture while living in agreement with earth. This is both my lifestyle and quest. It’s the basis for creating without instrumentality and for healing. It’s sweet.

I’ve got a friend who denies that anyone can live in agreement with earth. According to her/him, all the people who might have been capable of living in agreement were wiped out by us, the modern people. Any attempt at balance is futile for we ourselves are out of balance and totally crazed. It’s the old ‘people are a planetary cancer’ schtick. She/he’s not a bad sort, just murky. Some smart people don’t know how to settle the silt – always making with the spoon, stirring up their guts.

If I am addicted to anger, I might get a fix by ranting against the hypocrisy of green tinted consumption. If I’m addicted to disconnection, I might declare myself to be lone member of an elite environmental vanguard, ready and willing to slam everyone who doesn’t conform to my ideas. Righteous arrogance doesn’t promote stewardship any better than sleeping in front of a TV does. It drains away alliances. It makes folks sick. It’s boring.

Hard truths rock, don’t get me wrong. I want to reveal my insidious assumptions, identify the buggy lines of code. What am I ignoring? I appreciate uncomfortable insight from cantankerous curmudgeons. To awaken the world, we must unbundle the personal horror show.

I used to think that anger was a response to forces and events outside myself, but I’ve discovered that anger is always my responsibility. This recognition transmutes rage into productive energy and eventually anger becomes less prominent in the palette of emotions. Although my friend can be a pain in the ass, I know about her/his struggle. I don’t expect her/his journey to parallel mine, I just imagine her/him finding the center someday, cutting herself/himself some slack. Perhaps she/he feels that humans are incapable of balance because that’s her/his personal experience. It doesn’t have to be so forever.

Ah, to be less of an informer and more of a demonstrator. I want to demonstrate pragmatic practice for getting us all where we want to go – environmental sustainability, social justice and, (taking a cue from the Pachamama Alliance), spiritual fulfillment.

Anyway it’s time to make dinner and revisist the to do list. 10 more days before I am late for the boat!

From:     DAN
Subject:     Re: Kona next week
Date:     June 8, 2009 9:38:11 AM EDT
To:     KAI

Hey Cap’n,

Still in Michigan waiting for a few final components of the kit to arrive. In the meantime, I am tying up loose ends – clarifying the web sites, submitting Almonds to festivals and sorting out the boxes from the Brooklyn move. June 8th today, 13 days to get to Hawaii by the 21st. Assuming you are on the big island now. How’s Desire?

Thanks re: ‘On Desire’, I’ve been trying to do something on the blog daily, mostly editing some of the more blathery posts before writing more. Enjoying putting it all together.

Love to see current pictures of Desire and in progress. Looking forward to getting there asap.

Still no idea how to get from California to Hawaii. Got a couple of plans tho – Matson and Horizon don’t take passengers so I am going to propose involving them in the project – documenting their environmentally friendly operations in the 8 seas. Would be a great angle and experience. Same approach could be taken with cruise lines maybe. This might be too late to arrange coming to Hawaii but maybe not going back.

Meanwhile posting on sailing crew sites. I’ve tried craigslist too, can you recommend marinas locations in SF, LA or San Diego that might serve longer haul sailers?

It’s raining heavy here, beautiful.

blessings and bliss!

D

From:     KAI
Subject:     Re: Kona next week
Date:     June 5, 2009 7:37:02 PM EDT
To:    DAN

Hey Dano,

The site looks great! I love that you used one of my favorite pictures. It’s actually of another boat that I was buddy boating with from Neah Bay Washington to Portland OR. We had left early in the morning and I helped lead him through the fog and early darkness with my radar/GPS. When the sun came up the water/lighting was so cool I had to take that pic. Shortly afterward he turned towards Portland I dialed in my sails with a fresh morning breeze and headed farther South.

Anyway, Bon Voyagee on your travels and let me know how things progress. Have you figured out a way to get to Hawaii from the mainland?

Cheers! and fair winds, ~Kai

I’ve been blogging my ass off the past 4 days, prepping everything for the launch. It’s already June and I’ve got to get the heck out of here if I plan on being in Hawaii in 3 weeks without using jets. First tho, the blogs have to be done.

I’ve learned about the difference between categories and tags in WordPress, revamping the DOG blog (holy boners) in the process. I think HB is ready, and now I am scanning On Desire to see what’s left to do.

I was using categories like tags and wondering what my paradigm for categories could be – I am less than juiced about how I am using them on Holy Boners. As I opened On Desire and realized I had to revise those categories too, I suddenly flashed on what categories could be. They are the ideas and primary objectives of the project. By laying out categories, I am creating a blueprint for the project. Categories are a way of defining where the project is supposed to go and what it’s supposed to be about. That’s cool.

First pass at categories – out of hand

This illustrates how my ’1st pass’ at categories for On Desire could easily get out of hand. There could be hundreds of details like places and names – they are better implemented as tags. Categories are reserved for the key concepts and principles that belong to the project, what we want to advance our understanding of and engage with. The major themes – now and as the project unfolds.

When I revised Holy Boners I tagged all the posts and created a tag cloud. The more often a tag is used the bigger the font, it’s an easy way to see the ‘big ideas’. I can tag On Desire with details AND with big ideas, then those biggest fonts will suggest categories.

Tag cloud from Holy Boners

May 28, 2009… Train as in practice, not what hobos ride. How do we prepare ourselves for anything. Just because I am drinking a beer right now doesn’t mean that I couldn’t whoop a battalion of fascists with one arm tied behind my back or run 10 miles in under an hour. Ok, so maybe I am almost in shape, but that’s a temporary state of affairs. Here’s the training routine starting tomorrow, after I sober up.

Pre-production training May 28 – June 5

Daily

blog planning and update, (30 minutes maximum) x 2
top 3 objectives visualization and feeling into being x 2, (10 minutes)
yoga or tai chi (1 hour)
production (2 hour)
Pre-production and preparation (6 hours)

Sunday

blog revisions and organization (4 hours)

After several blogging experiments – Mistakes I have made, Awesomesheet and Desire – I begin to have some clarity on what the objective is.

This I knew…

• Keep the network humming with the latest news.

• Distribution improves the quality of one on one communication.  The backstory doesn’t have to be repeated over and over with each individual, wearing out the enthusiasm of the teller.  Conversations can thus be tuned to the specific shared reality of the participants and go deeper.

This is new…

• A knowledge archive is established. The searchable journal is distilled into a concise reference and resource for creation and self education.

Can I adapt WordPress for knowledge archiving? One strategy is to post with abandon and then extract salient information into pages.  The posting tools are adequate but there’s no automation for extraction and organizing.

For instance, how hard would it be to scan the entire blog for links and assemble them on the links page? Wouldn’t it be great if categories could be tagged in the body of a post and then an index built automatically? Perhaps the index could also have a little context, like you get with a google search. This might be a different than just the standard listing of categories.

I want to be able to use what I’ve posted so far to project and revise a plan. The manual approach involves searching the posts for relevant references, compiling the references on a page and editing them into something coherent. Aside from a rigorous maintenance of categories, I don’t have any inspiration for how this extraction and editing could be automated. I don’t think there is any hidden functionality in the basic WordPress feature set – though there may be tools to extend functionality.

Vision is an articulation of the elemental ideas that motivate and inspire a project.

Why would two guys wander around the Hawaiian islands on a sailboat? Certainly this is a silly question – given the chance, who wouldn’t wander around the Hawaiian islands on a sailboat?

That’s enough right? Bliss is what it’s all about, so what other reasons are needed?

In my life I’ve learned that bliss must be complemented with awareness. That’s the only way to know whether it’s true bliss. Consumption might feel good, but it cannot coexist with awareness. Bliss enlivens all, it’s not about my happiness over yours or a greedy scrabble for limited resources. It is IMHO, the principle that will save our asses from centuries of koyaanisqatsi.

I know there’s something excellent about the Desire Project but I cannot tell you precisely what that is. I’ve got to infuse Desire with awareness and viola – vision!

That’s the only item on this list.  To follow this process, check posts in the visioning category.

Here a silver gray and green morning with rain lightly tapping on spring leaves, copper roof and stone.  Location – Artist house, Beulah, Michigan, USA, Earth. It’s exceptional and a little hard to believe. I drove 18 hours in a Penske box truck loaded with Brooklyn life, crashed, unpacked and returned the rig and then spent a day with the Bear Lake family. Now quiet and comfortable in a rocking chair, looking out at the lake – a perfect moment. In a week or so I’ll be on the road, lugging a light production kit across continents and oceans. Come along, we are to adventure together.

I’ve got a hefty to do list yet to process, make no mistake.  Yet I feel the pace changing with the start of Desire. I am at the way station between what I was and what I am about to be, shifting into travel time. Cultivating presence. Everything is adequate, enough.

Babalu, the Deduytsches and Kai have reached Atuana, Hiva Oa. Land ho! He should be online in about 3 weeks.

Register on this blog and contribute, we’d love that!

It’s about 2:30 pm on Sunday the 23 of April 2009 by the mad reckoning of the Gregorian calendar. I am gorging on tofu and onions with a dash of tumeric, just a few vacuum swipes away from departure. Leaving the Brooklyn crib for the summer… or however long it takes to do whatever it is I am about to do.

After two months of not finding a sublet for my apartment I was resigned to an absolute exodus.  I had rented a box truck and was even getting excited. 5 years of New York City is enough, whoo hoo – I am outta here! I can release the assorted juicy collaborations, the martial arts training, the bike surfing, the slightly secret romance – don’t you just love secrets?

Then just days ago Anastasia intervened divinely and offered to take the place for the summer, she needing a respite from her reconnaissance of Austria. It donna get much clearer than that. When Anastasia acts as agent of the cosmos, that’s a serious hint.  An easy return to Brooklyn has manifested, so be it.