The Experimental College

If you're studying in Davis and looking for some time to fill in Spring quarter, I HIGHLY recommend checking out a few of the wonderful classes offered at the Davis Experimental College. It has courses taught be professionals ranging from firewalking to glass blowing to capoeira to first aid and tons of great other things. Check out the catalog they put out ever quarter and you may be surprised at what sounds interesting.

Try new things!

This shot was taken inside the experimental college registry office while the sun was shining through their library window and I was signing up for ecstatic dance, which you should all go to tonight.

Looks Like Rain Today

Time to bust out my hippie vomit ski jacket! If you see a guy that looks like a rainbow in shorts biking in the rain, thats me.

Ambiguity

A little bit of colored abstract for you guys today. Hope you're somewhere where you can enjoy the weather!

ॐ Om

ॐ (pronounced Om or Aum) is one symbol that has many meanings to many different people. For me, I didn't truly associate it with anything except for meditation (due to popular media, of course) until I took yoga over the course of last summer. It can be found in many prayers of Eastern religions and is considered to be a sacred symbol. However, as there are with many symbols from other cultures, there seems to be a bit of disconnect from the true meaning of the symbol and what most of our western culture sees it as. For example, as I was wandering through Tibet Nepal (a store in downtown Davis that sells a lot of eastern influenced art, jewelry, sculptures, texts, and so on) a group of very loud people entered the door with dairy queen blizzards in hand. Now, I make an effort to not eves drop too much, but it was a bit difficult to ignore them in such a small shop. Their conversation consisted mostly of repeatedly asking what the "three piece symbol" meant (referring to the ॐ) and commenting on how "badass" a big back tattoo of it would be. They then continued to comment on various other statues throughout the store including one larger one of Ganesh, saying that "that elephant thing would also look badass as a tattoo." Needless to say, they seemed a bit out of place.

Oh well, sometimes all you can do is smile and laugh a bit about the situation.

Dark Sparkle

Big shout out to everyone at Dark Sparkle IV last night! You guys are all awesome and I love you. Thanks for one blissful hell of an experience that I am not soon to forget. Everyone truly was the right kind of Creepy.

"Dark Sparkle is the potent mix of the mysterious and the dangerous that makes something irresistibly attractive, it's what causes people to push their limits to the point of insanity, it's what causes nice guys to finish last, it's that unexplainable quality that pulls people to the dark side.

You see, Dark Sparkle the First was simply a flash in the pan, a one-off stab at piercing through the mirror. But we were unsatisfied with that fleeting glimpse, we wanted more, nay we needed more. So the next year we got Straight Nasty. This time we went definitely broke through, but it was just a flirtation, an ephemeral exploration of an idyllic, but remote and seemingly unattainable philosophy. We had gained an appreciation for the perpetually pervading power of the Sparkle but we we're unable to contain it's enormity. Down with Dirty was about taking the next step; a collective realization that Dark Sparkle is more than a trashy scheme to get you shaking it in your leather skivvies, it's a way of life. We've come a long way in the last year and i think we are ready to go forth toward Dark Sparkle the Fourth. With The Right Kind of Creepy we hope to complete the transformation from Dark Sparkle being simply incorporated into the fabric of our lives, to the realization that Dark Sparkle is the very fabric of our existence."

Btw, the shot up top is not from last night, but from Ecstatic Dance the other day.

Prayer Flags

I picked up some pretty haggard looking prayer flags a little bit ago from a dumpster. They were pretty worn, but I felt like I couldn't just leave them there. So, I washed them a bit and now they are hung across my room.

I've done a little bit of research on them as well. Apparently, the traditional flags come in sets of five, with each color symbolizing a different element. "Blue symbolizes sky/space, white symbolizes air/wind, red symbolizes fire, green symbolizes water, and yellow symbolizes earth. According to traditional Tibetan medicine, health and harmony are produced through the balance of the five elements."

Davis Street Art

Yes, it is hard to find sometimes, but every once and awhile I find some killer examples of it. I would have to say that this would be one of the stellar examples. Featuring an anarchy heart, someones tag, and what looks to be my man Ray Charles lookin over the whole thing. Three artist doing an unintentional (or maybe intentional) collaboration to bring you this piece of art.

Just last night I got to witness someone throwing down their tag near a local market; it's always a trip to watch an artist at work.

Southern Alligator Lizard

This is the last shot that I got from Stebbins Cold Canyon reserve. Luckily, I'm headed back there today! He was spotted right before we exited the trail as we were heading back to the car. Cool stuff.

The Davis Tri-Co ops

A wonderful place full of music and friends on the porch on a rainy night. Been spending some more time at Agrarian Effort recently. Possibly a new home for next year?

Weathered Hands

My hands take a beating, but these last two days have been ridiculous. On Sunday I managed to nick a decent amount of the tip off of my left ring finger while cutting up some sweet potatoes for a cinnamon sweet potato walnut bread; the sacrificial bread was totally worth it, by the way...The next day while I was setting up the local slackline I managed to crush my hand while tensioning it with a group of people. Stupid mistake on my part, and now all I can do is wait for it to heal up. I don't think anything is broken so I just wrapped it, iced it, and elevated it for awhile to keep the swelling down.