///HEARTSTRINGS///

Sasha Kurmaz

Broke Alarm

Honebegood & Tonga vaea produced by Benjamin

///LUCOLU///

An elderly and reluctant boat engine provided the soundtrack for our strange float down the opaque brown river leading to Tonle Sap, a Cambodian lake so vast strangers could easily mistake it for the ocean. The mostly straight and mostly still narrow-way of water was flanked by floating houses painted with colorful sunburst patterns and mysterious symbols; banks punctuated with stranded miscellanea; kids either in groups frolicking and waving naked in the water or riding solo on bicycles three times their size. The scenery on each side was always the same: a vertical triptych of brown water, green grass, and greyish blue sky. There were sections that smelled of just plain river, then a section inhabited by the fishmongers of the village that smelled much less plain and much more potent, then eventually came a part where we were just about at the edge of the lake and the smell of gasoline took over our senses. Our boat had broken down, just long enough for me to take some photos and attempt to grasp the unreal oddness of the surrounding atmosphere.

A number of temples became real visions during that trip. Some existed in the middle of remote, wild jungles, half-covered with gatherings of little green plants that looked a lot like cannabis. Local children were hanging out casually, sitting on ruins hundreds of years their senior, with sunlight freckling their faces through the leafy canopy. Other temples were in areas nearer the city, being swallowed by seemingly mutant trees, not quite as giant as Redwoods but still massive and definitely more imaginative. Their main prey seemed to be ancient debris, and their roots spread wide as if to imitate some sort of vacuum, while their branches twisted every which way grabbing onto other parts of the rubbled victim in case it might try to get away. This was a weird and, at the same time, beautiful battle to witness: the battle between man and nature. A telling scene: nature reigns, man invades nature, then nature reigns once again.

Lulu and Co x House of Jazz Sailor Collar Dress

Lulu and Co x House of Jazz Pleated Dress

Lulu and Co x Maarten Van Der Horst Ruffle Back Shirt

Lulu and Co x Maarten Van Der Horst Silk Pyjama Bottoms

Lulu and Co x Maarten Van Der Horst Silk T-Shirt

Film photographs and compositions by me - Siem Reap, Cambodia, July 2012

Drums Come From Africa

Al Quetz aka Quetzal

///COLOUR///

They say I'm different. If Kaisik Wong hadn't already been catapulted into the next dimension, I would've wished and wished and wished for him to play dress-ups with me. Who knows, maybe him and I will embellish and ornament one another later tonight, in outerspace.

Century New Pathways
Jose Parla 2010

Zen Zen
Jose Parla 2007

Mercurial Aesthetic
Jose Parla 2008

Switching States of Mind
Jose Parla 2009

Storm of Broken Syntax
Jose Parla 2008

Li-Jiang
Jose Parla 2008

Fashion aspects by the late Kaisik Wong, floating in bliss /// Compositions by me

"Wait, oh, mourning, smile for me in all colour." - eske.

Special People

Betty Davis

///LORDSOF///

'Inflammation of the bronchial tubes' -- a phrase I often used in forged truancy-excuse letters at my all girls high school in New Zealand. Thirty-three letters later, I found myself being called to the dean's office where he presented me with a small black binder. Flipping through it, my own handwriting's attempt at my mother's signature fluttered about near the end of each ruled leaf. He didn't even bother to state the obvious, just gave me a look of stern disappointment, eyes wide and lips taut. Detention was to be attended for as many days as I skipped -- this was fine by me. Collecting trash around campus was much more tolerable than being stuck in a pallid room, barely awake, staring not at but through a teacher whose monotonous lecture always became a background drone to the daydream looping in my head.

Five mornings ago, I woke up with legitimate bronchitis. With no school to skip, no dean to disappoint, and no belief in the health-damaging, capitalist pharmaceutical industry, I prescribed myself an extra abundance of juices, smoothies, multivitamins, and superfoods for the next few days. But of course the most lasting remedy would be for me to quit smoking cigarettes. This ever-recurring cough is getting really old. I've quit so many other harmful things I used to ingest, why not this one too?

Having been, for the most part, loft-ridden this past week, I realized that solitude is much more valuable and enjoyable when one is in good health. Solitude when sick kind of just amplifies a desperation for tender, loving, caring company (read: mom or boyfriend) and tips very easily into becoming its close relative: loneliness. Thus, I finally got back into reading real paperback books that I can hold in the flesh; I finally got around to adding more layers to that beautiful mandala Ixchel and I started painting months ago on my bedroom wall; I finally found some free movies online that were compatible enough with my current mood to hold my attention the whole way through.

I drank a Jamaican ginger beer and several cups of chamomile tea with surfer turned skateboarder turned head-tatted-whiteboy-cholo-gangster, Jay Adams. Such a brilliant and admirable character; a real kid, not a sellout like all the rest. The idea of skating bowls and pools had been weaving a small desire within me these past sunny seasons, but while watching Lords of Dogtown the idea enveloped me with an urgent ambition, excitedly stating: YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO SKATE BOWLS.

Alien Workshop Colorsync II

Keith Haring x Alien Workshop

Penny Rasta (my baby board!) /// Flip Love Shroom /// World Industries Velvet

Penny Organic: Biodegradable plastic deck that eventually breaks down when fully immersed in soil due to a unique additive which reacts with enzymes in the earth to decompose. Comes wrapped in a hessian tote bag. Of course I want one.

Artworks by Anai Greog /// Compositions by me

///FREE///

wheels softly spinning

floating, fragile

gliding gleefully

by & bye

farewell ground

i'm sliding with the endless sky

seeing why

how the universe works

a single gear

churning & turning

leaves, pages, stages

inhaling, chest high
exhaling peaceful sighs

i do my best without trying

i sweat with the sun

without running

a rolling stone
free as a cloud

light as a feather

stiff as a board

fluid like water

that flows & flows & flows

skin, like the earth

that glows, glows, glows

a single infinite string

weaving the web

that is

us

us, the collective

the oneness

the lightness

the loveness

the brightness

& eternally weightless

bodies conceptual

everyone is everything

this

is real

thinking to feeling to just being

vibrations realized & rising

wheels softly spinning

faster & faster
humbly

till

we are nothing

& everything
all at once

we're at oneness

when i realize i am one with

everything

all becomes easy

the zone, the flow

the flowing with the roll

rowing forward

growing toward

i&i

growing

upward

toward the source

way up high

inside
of me
when i flow
i am free

Photographs by I.Lara, M.Vincent, K.Buena /// Compositions by me:

Joshua Tree - May 2012

Long Beach and Venice Beach - June 2012

The Grove - August 2012

Dawn

Chocolate Grass

^/\|||<-|\\<*-/\-*>//|->||/\^ it's freedom time ^/\|||<-|\\<*-/\-*>//|->||/\^

///CONSPIRITCY///

What if we are the aliens? What if we are far more advanced than the system lets on because all it's concerned about is money? What if all the things we've learned to need are completely false necessities? What if somewhere deep down in all of us lies the simple, obvious knowledge that we don't actually need money or material possessions? What if the majority of us are in denial? What if the majority of us don't even realize because we're in denial of being in denial? What if somewhere deep down in all of us lies the simple, obvious knowledge that we need to return to nature, to live freely and simply off the land? What if we realize that war and disease are completely reversible and, better yet, avoidable? What if we, as a whole, realize the devastating implications of technology and environmentally-damaging practices continuing to accelerate at the current rate? What if we finally realize that if we don't change our ways, Earth as we know it will crumble upon itself without mercy? What if we finally realize that the Earth isn't just some inanimate thing that humans can claim to own and inhabit but is in fact a part of us, and we are a part of it? What if we finally see that our one being is crying and in pain, realizing that we need to reverse the damage that has been done? What if we all took a step back and asked, "Why have we made a life originally so simple, so darn complicated?" What if we became collectively conscious and aware, discovering the real happiness exists inside each of us without external stimuli? What if we discovered the real, unconditional, universal, infinite love that we are all capable of emitting, all the time?

open up your ears

and clean out your eyes

if you learn to love

you're in for a surprise

it could be nice to be alive

If we are all aliens, there are no aliens.

We are one and we are love.

We can do this better.
We can.

Perhaps the most advanced cultures are the simplest ones.

Maybe they already discovered the highest forms of technology, experienced the damage it had done, & reverted back to simple origins where nature provides all of the technology they need. Or maybe they discovered & experienced these high forms of technology prophetically, in visions, in dreams, & made the conscious decision not to evolve through that path but instead to stay true to their nature.

Their nature is our nature, so why take our nature for granted? 

Film photographs and compositions by me:
Leyte, Philippines - June 2012

Imagine

John Lennon

///LOVEREIGN///

Be calm, let love flow freely within you,

then love will flow freely without.

When I was a toddler, overwhelmed with tantrums, each evening when I allowed myself to enter into a fit of uncontrollable screaming and crying, my father would pick me up, carry me to the back porch, sit me on his lap, and we'd gaze at the moon and the stars. After a while, my sobs would slow to an awkward hiccup, then eventually a peaceful calm. Love bounced between my dad and I and these celestial beings, connecting us, and creating a whirl of light around and inside of me.

"My fear grows fat on the energy I feed it,

and if it grows very big,

it probably happens."

A couple years after graduating high school, I began to experience the most frightening sleeps, ones overwhelmed with sleep paralysis. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't speak, and when I finally gathered enough strength to conquer the mysterious force and wake up, I would be crippled with fear. Each night I would think about how horrible it was going to be when I fell asleep, and each night for several months at a time over several years the paralysis recurred. Looking back, I can see at what point the suffering ended: it was when I no longer let that fearful thought plague my mind, when I let go of my desire to escape the nightmare, when I released myself of anxiety.

We too often doubt the power of our minds. Just as we can make our greatest nightmares come true, we can also manifest our greatest dreams. Everything that exists in our lives, we believed into existence.

"The mastery of fear."
The reigning of peace & harmony, light & love.

Fighting with Non-Violence
Scilla Elworthy

Film photographs by me:
1. Leyte, Philippines - June 2012
2. Leyte, Philippines - June 2012
3. Tonlé Sap, Cambodia - July 2012

///SATMORN///

Saturday greetings.

Saturday Morning

Low Leaf with Capski

///SUMMERCHILD///

fall of love

winter of love

spring of love

summer of love

love, like life, is infinite

it works in cycles

it never disappears

it merely t r a n s f o r m s

Also!

I'm finally opening my Etsy shop! In my mind, it was simply going to be called I, but there was a four letter minimum so I went with Harmony-Ka instead. Ka meaning you, spirit, vital spark, energy, fire, or spiritual power, depending on the culture. I'll be sharing secondhandmade items -- jewelry, cards, drawings, paintings, photographs, clothing, shoes, bags, organics -- created with recycled, repurposed, found, & bought materials alike. The humble profits I earn will go toward making my nature dream a reality: a peace sanctuary for you&you and i&i (you can visit my Etsy About page for elaboration). I've so much more to photograph & create for Harmony-Ka, but I wanted to make it public already! So for now, it's just jewelry. But be patient, & the gems will come*

///BIRDS///

~------\\/\\/\_-__ grow, transform, evolve __-_/\//\//------~

harmonize with the elements

choose love not fear

manifest golden dreams

there are windows everywhere

we are all flowers

be one with nature

we can get back to the garden
if we keep our karma high
we were meant to love each other
like the birds were meant to fly

visual memories by Ixchel Lara from 2010, 2011, 2012

///TWOPEACE///

John said, "I want to plant an acorn." I thought it was such a beautiful idea: an acorn as sculpture. So I said I would do the same, we will plant two acorns together. One was planted in the East, because I come from the East, & John planted one in the West. But the idea that 'East is East, & West is West, the two shall not meet' was turned around into 'East & West are together.' John said, "Yes, mine is in the West, but it's right next to you." We thought that was very beautiful, that we had made a revolution in a sense, that we changed physical distance with our love.

~ l'amour et la paix ~

John & Yoko photographs from various sources via Google images ~ paintings by Augustin Lesage ~ compositions by me