Vibrancy - Dec. 1, 2003

Vibrancy, A Zine For Our Scene
PartySmart, Dec. 1, 2003, http://PartySmart.org/zine

This is the third issue of Vibrancy, a quarterly zine published by PartySmart on the web, in print, and by email. The web version of each issue contains links to its print and email versions, and links to all of the other issues, past and future. Please help by printing a few copies to share with your friends.

In This Issue

Dance Culture and Beyond

Over the years, after many parties and dances, underground and commercial, it seems that the original inspiration of the local scene has been corroded by fear, law enforcement, and interpersonal conflict. I suspect that this may be the case in other regions as well. Have we become disenchanted in the “Land of Enchantment?” Is it fear of the RAVE Act? Ego clashing and conflict of interest? Or is it lack of interest, as we think, “That was just a phase; that rave thing is for the kids.” Perhaps it was a phase or two. Now it may be time for a new phase, one that opens to the whole world as an act of healing planet Earth while easing the current human crisis through awakening. Those of the older generation who are dancing with us in Taos, as well as the fresh international dance culture that I have experienced in Thailand and India, reassure me that this is not just for the kids.

Something is breaking out from beneath the surface of mainstream culture. Then, out of mainstream dance culture emerges a new evolution. This evolution incorporates an ancient rite of passage as well as a movement that is meant for right now, in this time.

What is so crucial about this time that we are in? There are subcultures on the edge of the great sleep, opening their eyes to the dawn, a new phase of conscious evolution. The dance scene is an emerging subculture that contains this seed, this great possibility. In continuance of the suppression of consciousness, the RAVE Act was created to thwart the potential for growth in movements and gatherings. Through fear-based propaganda, their own form of psycho-terrorism, the powers intend to maintain control over the masses. We have been divided and conquered and force-fed a fragmented reality of fear and separation. However, if the masses begin to gather, dance, and delve into forbidden realms of consciousness, this is a threat to the establishment. Our unity that extends beyond race and creed is a danger to their order.

In the dance, we may experience a sense of unified consciousness with one another. The challenge that is here for us is to experience being a part of the collective, while remaining empowered as an individual. The dance is an individual expression that interacts with other individual expressions of movement. It is its own dynamic and spontaneous language. Each one of us has our own unique design, our own special energy or beauty. All of us can be gifts for each other if we choose to accept and not to judge. The acceptance is born out of the acknowledgement that we are all at different stages on our path. Awakening may increase by presence, just as the sleeping masses remain complacent, unaware. We cannot remain complacent with the current state of human affairs. We must also urge each other to wake up and to not support certain delusions.

As we open up as gifts for one another, some will feel intimidated by this type of intimacy. For this reason it will be more comfortable if more of us can operate closer to a pure intention, not an ill intention, manipulative, or vampiric. And thus it is crucial for each one of us to be engaged in self-healing, working to clear the convoluted mind. Pure awareness is in the moment. And in the dance, pure awareness can reach out between individuals. Our unification is experienced as we are also empowered by our own divine seed within the individual body-mind-soul complex. The collective becomes the organism wherein each person is a different organ or function. A connection is established that mirrors the interconnection of the cosmos. The true nature of life is one of connectedness, rather than separation.

To enter into the whole, expansive and radiant, we must be able to move beyond the fragmented mind and the contracted subtle body into, at least for a moment, a pure awareness, naked, like the wonder of an infant.

Ram Dass once said, “The psychedelic trip is an astral analog of the thing itself; once you know where high is, then you have to work.” This statement is quite pertinent. The chemical dependency of dance culture may shift and evolve to where being high is a more natural state of being. If this shift does not occur, then this current dance culture may prove to be a phase or a fad. So instead of entering into another social zombie trance, we enter into the trance dance with awareness, in the body, on Earth and under the stars. Ecstasy is a natural expression of the unified Being, and dance becomes a meditative technique where needless worries dissolve. In pure awareness, there is bliss, not simply a state of mind, but a tingling vibration that runs down the spine and explodes into every cell of the body. The awareness, bliss, or ecstasy of each individual opens to and empowers the whole. As the contrived auric shields and subconscious blockages dissolve, the need for self defense is relieved. The need for acceptance based on appearance, or other superficial qualifications, becomes inconsequential.

Is it then conceivable to embrace the Being that we all are and the beauty of the individual, while helping each other to grow beyond unnecessary and detrimental behavioral patterns?

The key is that each individual is also engaged in their own conscious evolution so that the spiral will move with an upward tendency. Empathy and compassion are the necessary tools for peace in our interpersonal relations. Instead of being a territorial clan that manifests itself even now in the global domination of the super-powers, the new tribe becomes an open organism that is non-discriminatory, non-dogmatic, and essentially universal.

Steve Harkless, Harkless.org/steve, November 16, 2003

I Love Graffiti

I love graffiti. It’s probably my favorite type of art. Looking at graffiti makes me happy in a way that no other type of art can. It makes me sad to think that graffiti is viewed as something “bad,” though I know why graffiti art is frowned upon: because it’s considered destruction of property and vandalism. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why the public eye can’t always see graffiti as I and other graffiti writers see it. I think people don’t understand that it is an art form, just like any other type of art. I love to see different styles, and how colors are used. Creating style is probably the hardest part of doing graffiti. It’s also the best part of graffiti, not just because it’s great to look at, but when you think about it, because that style came from someone’s own imagination. They created it. It’s like seeing a part of that person on a wall or on paper. It’s a part of that person, just as we all have a unique form of handwriting. It’s almost like seeing how someone thinks. It truly takes LOTS of talent, LOTS of skill, and lots of dedication plus time to develop yourself into a graffiti artist, though I think the reward is a great one.

Back to graffiti as vandalism: I’m not saying that it’s okay in any way. I’m sometimes against people bombing, and doing it to get their name up. I prefer the actual graffiti pieces (still illegal/vandalism), because I see that as the art. Bombing to me is just a popularity contest, and that is a lot of times where the vandalism comes in, because bombing is done mostly where the public eye can see and that usually looks destructive to people. But I still love to go and visit different spots and yards around town; I think it’s a beautiful kind of art. I love the skill and patience put into different pieces. To me it’s a beautiful crime.

“Graffiti is the closest thing to Godliness because you can create, destroy, and alter your surroundings at will.” – Solar

S.W., November 24, 2003
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/sw2.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/sw4.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/sw3.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/sw5.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/sw6.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/sw7.jpg

Gifting It

I’m the lucky artist to take a whack at reviewing this documentary by Renea Roberts. Who hasn’t heard about Burning Man? I heard whispers about it even in Alice Springs, Australia, where I’ve been painting and sculpting for the last eight years. I paint about the process that an artist goes through. My hope is like the Burning Man concept, that my work is an act of making and enjoying rather than commercializing. Ironically, back in the States, I find myself wondering how to fit in and how to commercialize my work. I can’t escape it: the more my work sells, the more I sell it. I have become confused about what is real art. The act of the work being sold corrupts the idea of making art. I like the idea that great things are made, not for sale, not for commerce, but for art’s sake. Galleries hold artists hostage, because art must be sold to be appreciated. I’m hearing about it all over again in Santa Fe, and I’m hearing again about Burning Man.

The most basic requirement for attending Burning Man is that you must both GIVE and RECEIVE. Why are we afraid to trust in this process? Is it that when we die, we don’t take anything with us? What is really going on here? Globalization of art and humanity? Does everything have a price? Does it bother you to get great works of art for free? Does this make it less valuable? The artist’s life of mind-bending labor and physical hardships never pays well enough. Then something like Burning Man comes up, and it’s all I believe, in terms of the true sense of art: making it happen. What happens when art is made with no constraints on size or material, and no price tag? Social relations grow with the gift economy of Burning Man, with the economics of time and journey and space and freedom. Could Burning Man be the globalization of art and human kindness?

Word is spreading. People from all over the world wait an entire year for it to happen again. In droves, they fly and drive to a wide-open space in the middle of the desert. It is an artist’s dream, the rawest sight, an empty desert, no size constraints ... so much to fill! The layout looks like a city designed by a Roman architect. Massive structures, colorful action. You might see lights as modern as Tokyo, color as intense as Paris, architecture as great as Spain, sculpture as grand as America. Who wouldn’t want to go? Is it the fear of the desert, the dust of bones before us? Fear of the primitive echo? The freedom of creativity? Are you a little too afraid to go and participate in Burning Man? Well, then just see Renea Roberts’ film, “Gifting It: A Burning Embrace of the Gift Economy.” Watching it, I felt I was there myself. Hours and days later, I’m still thinking about it. My daily living is becoming affected by my perceptions of Burning Man, an experience to enlighten the soul and carry the spirit through another year of commerce and city living.

Derusha, November 30, 2003
http://www.GiftingIt.com

Full Lunar Eclipse

I recently attended a wonderful party called “Full Lunar Eclipse,” on the evening of, you guessed it, the lunar eclipse; I did so with great pleasure. The location is well known, time-tested, and perfect. In 2001, Moontribe hosted a late summer celebration of dance at this same spot. This turned out to be one of the finest gatherings I have ever experienced, so I was enthusiastic as soon as I heard about Full Lunar Eclipse. The first thing I noticed was how good the music sounded. I call this style “Cosmic Booty,” and I thank you for bringing it. I have been left cold at some events where the DJ laid down hours of relentless, unchanging beats. Not so on this occasion! All three of the musical alchemists kept it bright, unusual, and a bit sexy. A severe fifteen-foot steel figure watched over us and kept us warm, as its maker stoked the fire within its belly. It had come from Burning Man, and its warmth was much appreciated. The enlightened people who own that land and made the party possible are serious Burners, and should be applauded for their vision and effort.

I want to say hello to the lovely woman who picked me out from the crowd, led me to the dance floor, and with joyous abandon, grabbed my scarf and spun herself like a top while I held on. It was just a dance, but what a cool memory! This leads me to my last thought. I approached my friend Netanya and asked her to look at the full moon through a huge telescope that someone had brought. She said, “Thankyou for coming to me, because I was feeling so lonely.” I have noticed the lack of conversation between the groups who attend these gatherings. I cut my teeth on DJ Spooky and Soulslinger in Brooklyn during the early 1990s. People of all ages talked to one another in New York, and they still do. I have a suggestion for the young people who come to these events: you should engage those over thirty in conversation, or engage one another for that matter, because you could learn some interesting history about the culture you so dearly embrace ... and make an ally.

Burn ’til you learn! Peace is where I live. – The Brooklyn Tranzplant

Christopher Bright, November 30, 2003
Photo: Christopher Boyer
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/fullLunarEclipse.jpg

The Game Of Life

I’m sitting watching children in the park as they giggle, involved in a game of follow the leader. The sun shines brightly in the afternoon sky and the cool wind rustles bowing branches over the river. Their charismatic leader raises his right hand and all the children watchfully, exuberantly raise theirs. I’m suddenly struck by the image of a small crowd of children, hands heaven bound, like Hitler’s neo-Nazi youth. Of course, I’m not trying to say that these children have anti-Semitism fermenting in their hearts, but the aesthetic quality makes me think of black smoke pouring out of oversized pizza ovens. Truly, all the children were only following a leader, being part of a group activity. Don’t we all do that? What I mean to ask is, “Do people knowingly follow leaders to be part of something bigger?” In the case of the children, they were doing only what they were supposed to do, what the kid next to them was doing; not trying to replicate the army of the holocaust; only playing outdoors.

Children are inherently base, a clean slate. They provide insight into underlying factors, insight into human instinct. Just as a kitten stalking shadows is teaching itself one day to hunt, the children are teaching themselves one day to follow. You could make the argument that they signed on to “follow the leader,” and that’s the reason they each did as the person next to them did. Don’t we accept our politicians in much the same way as the children accept their game leader? Children become adults and adults play the American “game of life.”

One day someone says you are an American and, as such, you pledge allegiance to your country in wild abandon for thoughtless patriotism. We accept our government and what it does as part of national heritage, a group we identify with, something we are all part of together, in much the same way as the children in the game accept each other and the orders they act out. Why do we accept these things? Maybe it is something hardwired into us, the desire, the need, if you will, to be part of whatever is the greater whole. Very few people go against the group sentiment even if they are going against their own personal morals. Even in mass murder, people still have a hard time stopping the game of “follow the leader.”

Stalin killed millions of innocent people in a genocide that went largely unnoticed by the world at the time. In 1956, Stalin’s right-hand man, Khrushchev, gave a speech on de-Stalinization. During a brief silence, someone in the crowd spoke out asking, “Why didn’t you stop him?” Without skipping a beat, Khrushchev peered into the crowd and called out, “Who said that?” No one in the crowd would answer. Khrushchev, apparently knowing this would happen, simply said, “That is why I didn’t do anything,” and resumed his speech.

Now, I must admit that I could find nothing to support the historical accuracy of what I’ve just said, but perhaps that isn’t important. The reason why that anecdote is powerful has nothing to do with the end of the Stalin era, the context from which it came. The reason it is moving is that it touches on something we can all understand, something within us all, the need to cling to the group we are identified with. No one in the crowd spoke, because they would lose their identity as part of the listening audience; just as no one stopped Stalin, because they would lose their identity as comrades. Whether good or bad, people want and need to play the game of life, of follow the leader; just as children need recess, Jews need Israel, and America needs “you’re either with us or against us” Dubya.

Kristi Smith, November 24, 2003

About Time

Today I had a strange conversation about time, which took about five minutes. Actually, two people had the conversation, one of them being myself, so the conversation took ten minutes, five of hers and five of mine. Also, it was not the conversation that took the time; it was we who spent our time in conversation. I consider that I spent my time well, because I learned from it something valuable to me about time. I am not so sure that she spent her valuable time wisely, because she spent it all in explaining that she had no free time. I discovered that there is no free time, and that all of our time is valuable, mine as well as hers. We spend our time wisely in activities that are more valuable to us than time itself. This is true even of our time spent in sleep or in hanging out with friends. Therefore, it would be an insult to ask someone if they have some free time to spare. It would be much better to ask them to share their most valuable time doing something more valuable to them than time itself. We have no choice whether or not to spend our time; we can choose only how to spend it. We cannot hoard time, nor save it as in a bank account. We spend it at a constant rate, no matter whether wisely or wastefully.

Time shared with someone else is not a transaction wherein one gives and the other receives. We each either benefit or lose by our own attitude and our own choice of how to spend our time. I cannot waste your time, and you cannot waste mine. When we share our time together, we each spend only our own time. If I felt that mine was wasted, I would have only myself to blame. We often benefit more from time shared than from time spent alone, especially when we each appreciate something about the other or help each other to achieve more than we could on our own. It would be misguided for me to say that my time is worth $50 per hour and yours is worth $40, and demand therefore that you pay me $10 per hour for the time we spend together. Rather (and if we insist on analyzing it in dollar terms), if we both choose to share the time together, it must be because I estimate this opportunity to be worth more than $50 per hour to me, and you estimate it to be worth more than $40 to you.

My time is very valuable, the more so when I share it freely with you. You might consider my time to have no value, because you would pay me nothing for it. However, you would ignore the value to you of what we achieve together. That in itself is of great value to me, or I would not spend my time to achieve it. I hope my time will benefit you, and not cost you; I certainly would not measure its value according to its cost. You might consider the value of your time to be the hourly wage that you receive in exchange for it. You might try to maximize the number of “billable hours” in each day, in order to maximize the total value of your time. However, this is only the value of your time to someone else, not its value to you. You spend this time in exchange for money, but you can never use the money to buy back time for things that are more important to you. In fact, by this approach, you minimize the time available to spend doing something more valuable to you than time itself. If I spend my time encouraging you to use your time wisely, to share it with others in activities that benefit everyone including yourself, then I consider my time well spent, and we each begin to receive more than the value of our time. “For it is in giving, that we receive.”

Geoff Chesshire, November 21, 2003

Breathing

….Breathing….

I wish that breathing were an easier task.  I find too often I stop.
    While my lips turn blue, and the color of my face fades away,
        my eyes peer away at the expanse of my life.
            Then slowly I take a smooth breath and inflate my lungs once again.
                I want to follow my own directions and just take life as it comes,
                    but this is much easier said than done.
Wandering through life and living for yesterday and tomorrow is the easy part;
    it’s the living in the here and now part that is so very complicated.
        I spend so much time trying to live life for today,
            that when I get there I forget the essentials to it,
                breathing.
Once I’m in the here, I forget the now, and begin gasping for air.
    In the evening when I begin my journey into the past of my day in the now,
        the air starts to flow at a steady pace.
            I move into the future of the next day and the air comes too quickly.
Then I sleep in preparation for the day of next
    and venture into the land of imagination,
        where the past and future collide and become one.
            This is where I am at the most ease.
                Breathing is no longer an issue,
                    and I indulge and covet my time spent in this wonderland.
When I wake, I try and stay in the fairyland which is my dreams,
    but somewhere along the way, I stop.
        And find I haven’t had a breath in a while.
The present has come.

Chrystal Axtell, November 21, 2003

Marissa’s Memorial

Marissa’s Memorial, the Temple of Honor, Burning Man 2003
With love from the NM dance community.

Michael Becker, 2003
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/marissa.jpg

Drawings and Poems

Song of Dance

A song is like a bird, flying through the trees
Or like a snowfall
With a bit of a breeze
But nothing compares to
My song
The song of dance
With my feet
Stomping loud
I feel in a trance
When I dance

In front
Of
The crowd

Today I feel...
Like I should be in a room.
A room with no sound, no feeling.
Feelings hurt.
Colliding lights,
One white, one black.
Black wont change,
Neither will white!

Is white right?

Wake up. Do you see?
The air is invisible,
But it is still there.

Naked flowery
flowers, always flimsy flow.
Flow with the flowers.

Haikus for Adém

Sun sets on the town
Night owls fly to see you
Mixing it up hard

Where is the music?
Flying in colors all about
while the speakers bump

Dancers dance all night
The sun comes up and you say:
"I love you my fans!"

Drop that mother fuckin’ bass
I want to shake my ass all over the place
Bump bump bump
Here we go!
This is what it’s all about...
The after show.

Piano

A hammer hits the strings, there is mystery
there, coming out through my fingers.
Everlasting joy and happiness comes out from
the chords of wisdom.

The scales of delight are there when I am
bored with my other self,

The self that contains only utter lonely silence.

love of my life

A piano...
Is the instrument of my soul...
Without it I feel so alone...
My fingers dancing on the keys...
Gives me such great pleasure...
I try to cope without it...
Even if for a few seconds...
Dusk appears...
And I see my self...
At my piano...
I whisper to it...
I love you...
Never leave me...
For I want you to be here...
So I can see you...
And you can see me...
Forever...
You...
The love of my life...

Wind, Fire, Water, Birds

Wind on the fire
Birds on the trees.
My hand on the water
So I will sleep at ease.

Fire on the trees
Birds in the wind
Myself with the water
Together we will catch the fire,
The one dancing along the trees.

Water over fire
Birds once again in the trees.
Finally! Now I may sleep at ease.

Swift black lace skirts healing
hearts...stopped time, seconds, minutes...
Then it is over.

Lucia Aurora Garcia
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/lucia3.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/lucia7.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/lucia9.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/lucia6.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/lucia8.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/lucia10.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/lucia4.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/lucia1.jpg

Drawings

Cedar Joseph Attanasio
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/cja1.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/cja2.jpg
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/cja3.jpg

Cartoons

Joseph Carrington
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/chui3.gif
http://PartySmart.org/zine/01dec2003/chui1.gif

Thanks

I wish to thank everyone who contributed material for publication, and I invite your contribution to our next issue. If you would like to share in promoting the vibrancy of youth culture in our communities, then we need your help. – Geoff Chesshire