And here is a video of us at Occupy Berlin!
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They freaked! We freaked! Everyone was freaky!
I’m very happy about last night. I’m still basking in the afterglow as I sit on our green couch at 1045 a.m. after being awake all night.
We introduced our new member, Cloe (saxophone, accordian, keys and vocals) and they loved her. She’s kinda like a mini, slightly more-hyper version of Xania, but french and with beads in her hair.
We marched around the room playing trombone and accordian… through the crowd. I got to sing “Wish You Loved Me Again” with Chloe playing keyboard. It was so nice to get up close to the crowd and really sing my heart out. I loved it. Robert dressed as a giant pink bunny and blew massive bubbles. Xania played trombone for the first time in her life.
We introduced “BTW” (Trike and the Vikings) and “Parking Lot Love” (Friday Songs) to the audience. They freaked! We freaked! Everyone was freaky!
I just feel like we’re being reborn. I’ve been feeling in a rut for awhile (musically) – confused as to what to do and this concert clinched it. I want Trike to succeed… and now I’m finally beginning to feel like we are. I’m feeling like there is an energy in this city for us. I’m feeling the love. Returning home was amazing and I was on a euphoric high, but after being back over a month, planning for this concert and working with chloe, posting new videos and finding new inspiration in all of these activities…
I’m just realizing that this is happening. This is real. Who gives a fuck if we’re still D.I.Y. We’re growing and growth stimulates the neurotransmitters.
Thank you to everyone who came and joined us in our wackiness and sincerity last night. I love you guys.
Stephen
ps. The solo album is still being planned… However, a new Trike album is in order too… your support is the BOMB!
“Haters Gonna Hate” – a breakdown
This guy is the original hater. He’s a little british dude. This was taken in his workplace. He is obviously an insurance adjuster.
Haters Gonna Hate. According to knowyourmeme.com it is “a catchphrase used to indicate a disregard for hostile remarks addressed towards the speaker. This expression has its roots in American hip hop, and spawned an image macro series featuring pictures of celebrities, animals and cartoon characters strutting or posing in a conceited manner.”
Whenever we do vlogs we get haters. Check out Trikevlogs, our vlogging channel. Every single video gets loads of hate. I don’t care because I have a healthy disregard for hate… plus, let’s face it – in most of those videos, we’re trollin’ trollin’ trollin’… boxxy style.
Surprisingly, the phrase is over eleven years old. The first appearance in pop culture is in a song called “Playas gonna play” by 3LW.
One of the earliest references to “haters” is from Ice T’s 1999 single “Don’t Hate The Player”.
The phrase has been around since 2000 but in fact it’s only been popular since 2009. Usage and popularity of the word has been on the rise since then.
I love looking up etymology of words. If you’re interested in reading more, check out knowyourmeme’s page on it.
And remember, don’t be a hater. If you are, and people respond with “haters gonna hate”, all it indicates is a healthy disregard for your hate… ergo, your hate will be in vein. Stop the hate, bitches!
Psy-Trance Promotional Video
Thanks to Aurora for enlightening me… And good luck to her on her PhD in Psy-Trance.
These guys are from Finland. Here is their Myspace.
Comment below and tell me your favourite psychedelic, spiritual, astral experience whilst dancing to Psy-Trance.
Are Kids in the Internet Age Suffering?
I went back to my hometown last month. Prince George. I was there for a week. I had a high school reunion and all sorts of fun adventures including … oh, I dunno, going to the Mall, Rollerskating with a cute girl, lunching with my teacher from Grade 7, hiking up Cranbrook Hill with my ex-girlfriend, talking about Buddhism with my old friend Nathan etc… But one thing I found disturbing when I walked around my old neighbourhood was the fact that the kids weren’t outside playing. The streets felt so empty. I was flabbergasted. Where were the kids?
I saw a couple of kids walking around now and again but for the most part, the streets were devoid of children.
Years ago, when I was living in that neighbourhood, on that street, I seem to recall the streets being chock-full of kids. We sold lemonade from our little lemonade stands, we had yard sales, we biked around, we played street hockey, my brother and I made videos (involving other kids in the ‘hood), I put on plays in the basement… the list goes on. I had a full and active life. Other kids in the neighbourhood seemed to have full, active lives as well.
I asked my friend why she thinks kids don’t play outside. She made a gesture with her hands that suggested texting (which is also the same gesture you would use for playing video games). I was immediately filled with sadness.
Of course she’s right. Of course most kids (in North America, at least) own iPhones, iPads, loads of video games and I’m sure they’re all consumed with their online lives. I’m sure 1/3 or half or even more of their lives are spent in cyber-space (versus Meat-Space).
A telling moment. When I was on the plane arriving in Vancouver, a teenage girl was glued to her phone. “This will be the most EPIC Facebook status EVER!” she claimed. “It’ll probably get, like, 25 likes!” Perhaps it will, my teenybopper friend, perhaps it will… but does it really matter? What do you want, a brownie?
Everything is about moderation. Technology is fine with moderation. Spending excessive amounts of time online, playing video games or texting friends seperates you from reality… from real, 3-Dimensional reality. For me, there is still something nice about going to a coffee shop (preferrably not Starbucks) and sipping on a cup o’ Joe as I read a good book… or chatting with a friend… or drawing…
I had a fairly active childhood. I’m sure, with the right parenting, kids today can still have a full, active childhood, but I can’t help the feelings of sadness that I felt when I saw those old streets so empty and lifeless, knowing that inside, the kids were more than likely glued to their Macs, iPhones etc. etc… I don’t want to be a curmudgeonly character railing at the “foolishness of youth”, because I also benefit from all of these new, fancy technologies… but … y’know… I think balance is important.
Hey, at least we can still make “EPIC” Facebook statuses, right (or as my friend calls it, “Wastebook”)?
10 years ago we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash – Now we have no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash.
I will talk more about this slogan but before let me tell you about the NIGHTMARE that is GERMAN CUSTOMS!!!
This has never happened to me before, but German customs, upon seeing my package from Leora (from Vancouver), decided to confiscate it. I have to go in and present them with receipts for all of my items.
Why??? Apparently it has something to do with insurance. Leora had also purchased some insurance for the items… apparently that’s the reason?
Either way, in case anyone is wondering why we haven’t made any skits or vlogs recently… this is the reason. I foolishly forgot my video camera, soundcard and microphone in Vancouver (why Stephen, why?). I also forgot my Supertramp book somewhere in BC (either at my mom’s house or Leora’s house… not sure). My absent-mindedness reached new lows with this forgetful stunt… and now I have to somehow prove to the customs people that this shiznit is mine all mine.
Problem is, the soundcard was a product that Yamaha gave to us (via our friend Claus, who also hooked us up with a mixer and PA speakers when we made our album “Trike and the Vikings” and has given me very cool keyboards) therefore I have no way of “proving” that it’s mine. None.
Ah, German beaurocracy. Monday morning we will head down there with our erstwhile roommate Hannes to demand (politely… Canadian-style) our stuff back. Then we can get back into the swing of things.
Until then, I’ll keep binging on episodes of 48 hours, busking, hanging out with groovy Berlin friends, eating baklavas and going for walks around Neuköln late at night… oh, and working on a new song about perverts perving each other.
Wish me luck.
Here’s a great little “Occupy Wall Street” protester, doing his thang… and another incredibly mature protester defecating on a cop car. Classy:
And here is something I keep seeing people post on Facebook. I like this slogan. Funny and true… Does anybody know who coined this phrase?
Ah where is good ol’ Johnny Cash when you need him? And why did John Ritter have to go to the great beyond too? He was my hero…
Lawnchair Larry and The Dawn of the Beatniks
Yesterday and today are momumental dates. Why?
Today is the anniversary of the Six Gallery Reading, where Allen Ginsberg first read “Howl” and several other poets read (Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia and Philip Whalen). That night was truly a monumental night, captured in prose by Jack Kerouac (In “Dharma Bums”) and Michael McClure (“Scratching The Beat Surface”).
Jack Kerouac was drunk on Burgundy wine, running around yelling “Go! Go! Go!” as Ginsberg read…
I have been obsessed with the Beats since I first heard about them. I’ve read Howl to every girlfriend I ever dated… usually ending up in a puddle of tears at the end (well, at least a touch red-eyed). They have produced some of my favourite works of literature ever. This date, therefore, is very important to me as a reader, a writer… a human being… hell, when I first discovered the Beats, I started wearing a beret, writing poetry and smoking drum tobacco… who didn’t?
Does poetry still have the same impact it did back then? I mean, the beatniks started a cultural revolution. They started anti-establishment thinking and ideas that pre-dates the hippies. Now, when you see the Wall Street protests, obviously now is another big “time for change”. Who are our Ferlinghettis and Ginsbergs now?
* * *
Now, I don’t know too much about Lawnchair Larry, but after discussing it with my Uncle David, the story is quite an intriguing one. On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters, who was an American Truck Driver, decided to make a “homemade airship” by attaching 45 helium-filled weather balloons to his lawn chair.
And it worked!
He ascended 16,000 feet in the air… much further than he had originally hoped. He had brought a pellet gun to shoot the balloons when he got too high. When he finally made it to the ground he was arrested. When asked why he did it, he replied “cuz a man can’t just sit around!”
Walters received the top prize from the Bonehead Club of Dallas for his adventure, as well as invitations from The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman.
After his flight, he was in brief demand as a motivational speaker and he quit his job as a truck driver. He was featured in a Timex print ad in the early ’90s,[5] but he never made much money from his fame. Later in his life, Walters hiked the San Gabriel Mountains and did volunteer work for the United States Forest Service. He later broke up with his girlfriend of 15 years and could only find work sporadically as a security guard.
He committed suicide in 1993 at the age of 44 by shooting himself in the heart in Angeles National Forest. My uncle claims it was because his “flight” was so incredible that nothing else could really compare. How could you live day-to-day after such an incredible experience?
In other words, today and yesterday are important.
HERE is a great article about Larry’s adventures
LAWNCHAIR LARRY:
