Bionic Teutonic

I got my new tattoo yesterday!  I put some pictures up on Flickr. It’s a bit flakey and sensitive at the moment, but I think it turned out really well. I’m trying to take really good care of this one, putting lots of lotion on it and such. I got it done by a guy named George Long at Laughing Buddha, whose work I really liked. It’s a bit of a trick to get a tattoo to actually look straight on an arm, with all its curves and concave areas. He did a great job of adjusting it by hand so that it looks good regardless of the angle. He also designed the clouds behind the sanskrit and I’m really happy with the way they look.

We had a great time at Harbin last weekend. I couldn’t get any pictures really, as cameras are not allowed there (I guess they don’t want you taking pictures of all the naked hippies but we rocked it. It was really nice to have some time to just relax and catch up on sleep. We spent a bunch of time in the pools and had a really great time hanging out with our friend Rara and his fiance Jumana. Rara and I spent a morning in his studio on Saturday. I got him to play guitar over a track I’m working on and we also just geeked out on music, discussing ideas and techniques. It was nice to have somebody to shoot the musical shit with again. I’ve been missing that for a while. Harbin itself is beautiful. It’s located in a really beautiful valley just north of Napa and we got to take some really nice hikes in the surrounding hillsides. The resort is surprisingly big actually. It’s so spread out that you only rarely get a sense for how many people are there at any one given time, but there were probably several hundred guests I would say. I was looking forward to doing yoga in the mornings, but the yoga there was sadly very much on the new age tip - not so much on the physical practice.

This weekend I’m getting a new tattoo. I’ve been wanting another one for a while and I had a consultation this week, so I’m all set. I’m getting the ashtanga yoga mantra Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu in devanagari sanskrit around my arm, with some stylised clouds behind it. It means may all beings find peace and happiness, which I like. Plus devanagari is beautiful.

I’ve been thinking about travel plans this morning. I have so many different places I would like to go and see and figuring out what to make a priority is sometimes hard. Ariel and I are going to visit our friend RaRa down at Harbin Hotsprings in a couple weeks which I’m hoping is a weekend of total relaxation, but I’m also trying to figure out my next international trip. I think I might go to Germany next summer with my dad for the 15th year anniversary of the sister city program he started. I actually got a little lump in my throat thinking about this yesterday. It’s been such a long time since I lived there (17 years with only one summer working there since then) and yet parts of my time there are still among the most vivid memories that I have. High school kind of all blurs together, but I remember so many little details from my 9th grade in Germany. It would be fun to go back, even if only for a short while. I’m also still considering a trip to Spain for some Flamenco guitar lessons at some point too. Jerez del la Frontera calls to me. The only problem with Europe at this point is the stupid exchange rate. It hurts. Perhaps I need to find another Bali like destination, where a thousand dollars can be more than enough for two weeks. Any suggestions?

I just got a new laptop (I bought a Macbook Pro from my friend Damon) and spent all weekend loading it up with software and starting the long process of reading manuals and playing around so I understand how everything works. I have to say, it’s amazing how far computers have come in the last 5 years or so. I have pretty much everything I could ever need music wise loaded onto a 1/4″ thick piece of metal and circuitry. It really blows the mind. Ariel, Tim and I also had a 3-way video chat yesterday (sounds kinky, but it wasn’t). Tim was puttering around preparing food for Marzipan (his dog) in his new house in N.Y. while Ariel and I were on our various laptops here in Seattle. We live in the future and it’s amazing.

I’m excited about making music again, which is cool. I haven’t really had the bug very badly for a while, but having the new laptop, not being confined to a basement studio, and just being engaged with the software again has given me a little kick. Hopefully I can integrate it back into being an integral and sustainable part of my life again. If anybody ever has the bug to write some music or just get together and share ideas, let me know. I’m feeling it right now.

It’s been a little while since I posted last. Partly becuase I haven’t set up my computer at home. I’m buying a laptop from a friend of mine and am getting rid of all other large, bulky computer and music related equipment. Downsizing like crazy. I’ve held onto all my old synths, computers, etc. for various reasons, but am realizing that the convenience of having everything be small and mobile outweighs all those other considerations at this point. Anyway, I haven’t had the motivation to set up my other computer knowing that I’m going to be moving over to a laptop soon. I have to get moving on selling all this crap online to make room. Good news is that our new place is starting to feel like home, just have a few things to get rid of and organize, but I’m now fully moved in mentally I think.

The last two weeks have been alternating between increadibly busy and increadibly lazy. Working on the house, decorating, etc. has taken up a bunch of time, and when I’m on a roll, I’ve been a machine, but on the other side, I’ve managed to have quite a few days of doing pretty much nothing at all. I guess that balances out a bit. I’ve also been various kinds of injured the last week and a half or so, and so have taken time off from circus and other excersise, and somehow that turned into allowing myself to eat poorly as well. I just got back to the gym on Saturday and did yoga Sunday. It felt good to get my body moving again. I think I need to have some of the structure that circus/yoga, etc. provides so I don’t start treating my body poorly in other ways as well.

I’ve run into the first setback with my marathon training. Last weekend I did a 13-mile long run and while I actually felt fine during the run, two days later, on one of my weekly runs my left knee started giving me some grief and has been problematic ever since. I had left my good shoes at circus and so had done the run in my old running shoes, which I think is mostly where I went wrong. It’s mainly when I’m going downhill that it seems to flare up, but if I don’t pull back (or stop completely) it hurts like hell and I can barely walk, let alone run. So we’ll see I guess. I’m going to take it easy and scale back on the miles fairly significantly until it gets better. I was feeling really good about sticking to my plan up until this point, and it would be a bummer if my knee doesn’t start feeling better. Better to undertrain than overtrain, I guess.