i-erry Yule blessings

JAH Bless,

Tis the Season for Blog Lag Time....

It's that time of year again... between the turkey day haze, gift grabbing fog and the blur of final projects, tis' once again the season of hasty updates.

Since my last post, I established a Twitter account in order to give updates on my life and statements of solidarity to "Occupiers" I support.

Let me digress a second on the Occupy topic... I support Occupations that follow the same 2 rules that I do in my own self-Occupation.

1. No Violence
2. No Destruction of Property

OK, back to my life... Below are some draft pictures for my final project for a class in "Teaching Math, Science and Social Studies concepts in Early Childhood Education"

The book is designed to help children understand the concept of how our environment has changed over time and how our actions can impact the future.

It's based on a story from my life when my childhood friend and myself were going to our favorite spot in the creek near our neighborhood only to run into the final phase of the construction of the Herndon Parkway by surprise.

I use progressive imagery in the book to show how the North Virginia landscape has changed over a thousand years (the following are some highlights from that segment of the draft book)

Unless "Change" rolls through again, this will probably be my next big personal project.

Otherwise... I have been continuing my tutoring activities in Herndon (despite not living there anymore)

Here is a photo I took of my portable Rock and Mineral collection in use during one of my enrichment activities.

I've also brought in my Moog Little Phatty and attached it to a Oscilloscope to let the kids have some creative free play with sound waves.

The Jams still continue on Thursday... The walks in the woods have not been as annual as I'd like, but as my schoolwork and weekend contract jobs wrap up, I hope to get back into more woodland Shamanry.

I have two new illustrations in the works that should be posted here sometime after the Holiday Break.

Until then..

Peace, Love and Blessings to 100% of all human beings... I hope your 2012 transformations will go smoothly this time next year.

-r

Sun Dancing At LEAF

SOoOo I just floated back from LEAF a couple days ago...

LEAF stands for the Lake Eden Arts Festival which is held in the Spring and Fall of each year.

By far, LEAF is my most favorite festival series (just one above Floydfest)

I brought the iPad and got some media...
Here was my humble abode for the four days I stayed there...

Here is my medicine bundle with my flutes and the Shaman singing bowl (rumored to be made of clay from a near by sacred valley)



Here is a clip of community family encampment nestled among the golden trees in the sacred valley...



Here are some brave youth preforming the initial sacrificial descent into the frozen waters of the holy lake in order to call blessings upon the festival (it was 32 degrees the night before)...



Here is another shot of the holy placid lake as seen from Eden Hall...



And here's a short clip of me giving thanks for being alive, healthy and partaking in the most beautiful festival I have ever attended...

Find out more about LEAF here.

Peace, Love and Blessings

-R

Moving On...

So 26 years in my old house in Herndon was getting a bit stifling so I decided to move on out and get a place of my own.

My own Kitchen...

My own art studio...

My own living room...

My own cottage in the woods...

"...My own life is all I can hope to control
So let my life
Be lived for the good of my soul...

and let it bring peace...

sweet peace...

peace will come...

and let it begin with me..."

(exerpt) Peace Will Come -Tom Paxton

Floydfest X

You know how it goes for me at these things... I get all my camera cards cleared and ready to document every unforgettable moment...

Only to come back with a handful of boring pics.

Yup...
This is Floydfest X
5 days of camping on a mountain top
11 stages of local and global music
14,000 people
8 police officers

And No Judgment!

I have a special place in my heart for the free children of Appalachia, we share common roots.



(obligatory backstage access gloating)

I have a lot of artistic visions I picked up here, so I may return to this theme in the future.

Peace

Love

Freedom

Blessings

Forever

-r

24 hours...

I bought a VIP pass for Floydfest 10 back in December 2010.
Ever since then I have counted down the months, the weeks and the days...
up to this moment...

in about 24 hours, I will be in Floyd (Jah Willing).

Now if I can just make it through the day without getting fired for giving dirty looks to people who get between me and my journey, I'll be all set...

Birthday Parties, Kayaks and other Hippie games...

My buddy Jax had a Birthday last weekend so I made him a party shirt...

but I think he was more interested in the iPad...


After he settled down for the night, the grow-ups went for a little midnight Kayak ride (the iPad stayed in the car)

I got some memory shots the next morning... here's the tents

Here's the camp fire...

Here are the Kayaks by the river...



And here is my early morning music meditation...

Your Gonna Lively Up Yourself

iPad syncing in nature

LivelyCast "Sunday By The River"

LivelyCast "Friday After Work"

There is some livity to be had in the quiet corners of NOVA, during the quiet hours of the day. You just need to be in the right place at the right time...

LEAF 2011

Just got back from the Lake Eden Arts Festival...
..aka..

-LEAF-

http://www.theleaf.com/

It's essentially a music festival that uses it's proceeds to fund art and music programs for children in poverty stricken areas, both locally (North Carolina) and internationally.

^this description does not do this festival justice. Check out the link above for more info...

Peace, Love and Blessings to our brother and sister organizers at LEAF, they are worthy of abundant positive karma.

=UPDATE=


Director's Cut
06/08/11

...Comfortably numb, I shot the Sheriff.

Sooooooo Back on April 8th, the band was invited to attend a live sound stage recording event at NOVA in the Waddell Theater. The recording class sections got their gear together and recorded the live performances of some bands (us included) and the students worked on the mixes as their final projects.

Here's a big thanks to the NOVA Loudoun recording team for their hard work.

Here is the video footage of two of our recordings:

COVER: "I Shot The Sheriff" -Bob Marley



COVER: "Comfortably Numb" -Pink Floyd



Namdar on Guitar/ Vocals
Alejo on Bass
Brian on Drums
Rodger on Keyboards/ Vocals

-ONE LOVE and Belated Beltane Blessings

-RajJAH

peace rocks

Met up with my friend deven over the weekend... and he had a camera!

First we went down to the mystical spot by the river where I maintain a medicine circle and noticed that someone had turned it into a peace sign.

So we decided to gather some different stones to add to the circle.
This is a flood plane, so all of this will wash away eventually.

I may build my circle on higher ground, but I like the way it looks now...

Hope our children can say the same thing.

Peace - Love -Blessings

-R

Longing for Floyd

Ahh spring is in the air, the little red buds are about to explode into flowers as nature's process of re-creation starts up. It'll be about 5 more months until FloydFest 2011 and I'm looking forward to it...

I'm looking forward to it so much, I've decided to change some words around on Joni Mitchel's "Woodstock" and call for Global Human Freedom Concerts to happen around the world to sync up with Floyd.

I made this Yesterday


I'm working with my Jam tribe now to do a larger cover of this...

more soon... for now, I gotta get ready to start my next class.

-Peace

Springing Up to the next milestone

So I've been taking classes again and thus, I have been splitting my "mindforce" between my incredibly evolving jam band and my Early Childhood Education classes.

I've been writing a lot of papers, working on a lot of group projects and learning a lot of really useful things.

On Thursday nights I meet up with my jam group and each day we have met up, we have learned a little more and improved our talents.

So there has been little room for art.

I did manage to make these...

These 2 illustrations were for a quick PowerPoint on the need for more men in Early Childhood Education.

(Though it looked more like a 5 second highlight on the issue of how men fear being judged the wrong way for working with young children...)

I've been going over different studies in anthropology, census data, history, academics and a bunch of other fields. The results are indicating to me that very young humans around the world basically do better if they have an equal balance of honest men and women in their lives.

So hopefully I can do what I can to restore balance (aka: Social Equilibrium)

I made it through my first ECE introduction course pretty successfully. The course was not easy. But I mean that in a good way because it was designed to give you a taste of what you can expect in workloads should you seek a career in Early Childhood Education. In some ways it felt more like a gatekeeper course because only hard workers and team players are going to make it through. Another good thing about the introducation class was it's ability to be done while working a full 9-5 on the side. Yes it was worth it! The teacher is one of the few I have had in my life who is quite honest with the class and knows what she is talking about. She is also very approachable and communicates a lot with her students.

I feel confident that I can continue my education in ECE and eventually work in the field (Though I'm still not quite certain on where my talents could serve best...).

Oh well, I've reached another milestone on the path, I can see the next one on the top of yonder hill... I lift my foot and move forward.

-Peace, Love and Blessings

-R, Mar11

To the people of Libya

I no longer have a message for the "leader" because you have none. The Tyrant Ghadafi has sealed his fate, the sands of the desert await the return of his body.

I call upon all Libyan's to join together as ONE. This is your new dawn. This is your crossroads.

Look to your children. You now have all the power to see that they live in peace and freedom.

Let us all join together with ONE LOVE and heal the world so that our children, and thier children and all the generations beyond the sight of your dreams have a chance to live in peace with one another in gardens such have never been seen since the dawn of creation.

Let us help the Earth to become ONE with the paradise that awaits in the after life.

May the Creator and Sustainer of life aid you in your struggle to live in peace.

To Bahrain

To the king of Bahrain...

God sees all that you have done and will collect the debt you owe in this life or the next, you have no choice but surrender and do the right thing.

To the people of Bahrain... Trust in yourselves, organize as one. Light a Peace of flame in your hearts and glow brightly in your unity. Let the light expose the haters in the dark so that the world may see them. Surround them with love and force them to surrender. You are at the crossroads...like your brothers and sisters in Egypt, Tunisia and in free nations around the world.

Oppressed peoples of the world, stand together for your human rights! You have nothing to loose but your chains!

FREE-Jam

This is a clip from a free jam I did with my friends at our secret studio (Voodoo Cookie Jamroom)

All the artists in the jam taught themselves how to play the instruments that they play. Most of us can't read or write in classical music notation, we just play by ear. We have a basic melody that we grow into elaborate rhythms for some of our material, but a lot of this is made up on the fly.

How do we communicate?

Well, sometimes I can hear someone change their beat or key and I adjust my own playing to harmonize. Sometimes I make eye contact, but honestly it's getting to the point where where all the senses and changes happen so quickly, it's almost as if everything is done through a 6th sense of cognitive communication.

it's another miracle of human evolution, people just need to learn to tap it.

to the pharaho in Egypt.

-GOD command's you pharaoh, set His Children FREE!

and to the people of Egypt;

Peace is the flame we hold in our hands...
use it as a torch to guide, not a torch to burn.

look to yourselves, look to the brothers and sisters around you.

UNITE AS ONE

ONE LOVE

ONE HEART

Beat the song of One Love upon your heart;
If you beat it always in Truth, you will have freedom.

And the rest of us will be inspired to join you.
You have reached the crossroads now.

Musical Improv

Every now and then, I try to record an improv solo performance as an musical evolution marker. This one I made last night I was pretty happy with because I did it in one take and was able to preform without being conscious of the camera recording.

So here is "One Love-One Take" also known as "One Take-One Love"