8-11-08

hi!  how are you?  last night we camped out in the woods of oregon.  matt made some bad ass potato soup over the campfire.  beer under the stars.  big fat moon through the trees.  sleeping on the floor of the forest is kinda awesome.  it made me wonder what it was like for those original homies making their way back in the early days.  of course i have those weird thoughts every time i camp out.  like, watching the fire boogie about i started thinking about the sun and the fire being essentially the same stuff.  ya know?  kinda cool.  i love the smell of the air in the woods.  so rich and fresh.  i could tell the trees were happy to have us hang!

this morning we drove up through washington state and crossed the border under the shadows of the clouds.  this world is so beautiful.  how do we not notice the beauty moment by moment!?!  so strange how distracting billboards and cellphones and bills can be.  i catch myself in moments of forgetting and gently bring myself back into awareness of the magic of the moment.  feel them bones!  breathe that breath!  what a buzz.  i love you guys and you love the world or you wouldn't be stickin' around through all the headaches and heartaches.  you da bomb digs.  love you!  see you!

c

8-10-08

hey there.  out on the road with matt pryor having tons of fun.  yesterday we drove through wyoming and as the mountains started to creep up, the rolling hills looked like a frozen ocean.  every day we try to find a local brewery to try different brews, which has been interesting and fun fun fun.  we ate at squatters brewery in salt lake city last night and matt and i both tried the Devastator, which is their strongest ale.  good!  it's a lot of fun being back in the van and seeing the gorgeous scrolling landscapes. 

so, we've played four shows and each show has been a blast.  i've been playing your requests which you guys emailed me, and also a bunch of requests taken at the show.  as an experiment, i've also been doing these super weird drawings and selling them.  the first night in minneapolis i sold out of all my drawings, so i figured if the demand is there, i'll keep doing them.  it's actually a lot of fun!  and since each drawing is totally one of a kind and definitely cannot be reproduced, whoever buys the drawings has a unique piece of chris conley memorabilia which no one else in the world can get their hands on.  fun.

today we have a day off and we're driving up into washington state to camp out and cook out before crossing the border into cananda for monday's show in vancouver.  stoked for a night in the woods.  and perhaps we'll find another brewery and sample their lager!  it's been great to hang out with all you guys at the shows.  it's nice to be face to face and share the smiles!  well, hope you're doing fine and i hope to see you soon at one of our shows!

c

8-06-08

hey there i'm in minneapolis today to start tour with matt pryor.  it's been way over a year since i played solo.  i'm excited for the intimacy.  i've been getting lots of emails about song requests for the shows.  thank you, that makes it easier for me to choose which songs to play out of the hundred plus in our catalogue, and i'm sure it's fun for you guys too. 

when i woke up i took three deep breaths and walked down stairs and out over the highway to the gas station to buy a bottle of water.  walking back, i noticed how thick and slimy the air was over the highway from all the carbon dioxide.  it was interesting, i was just reading in a book called "the complete guide to chi-gung" that the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes it harder for our bodies to get enough oxygen, which in turn makes each organ work harder and exhausts the heart.  the author, daniel ried, was suggesting that when our bodies are not properly oxygenated, they get sick and irritable.  actually, he mentions an interesting discovery made in 1931 by Dr. Otto Warburg.  Dr. Warburg received the Nobel Prize in medicine that year for his discovery that "the primary condition associated with all forms of cancer is severe deprivation of oxygen to the cells of the affected tissues, and that cancer cannot occur in tissues that are sufficiently oxygenated."  pretty interesting, no? 

it's odd that a discovery like this is relatively ignored by western medicine.  have you ever had a doctor ask you about breathing patterns?  (although i suppose that would be pretty bad business for the big drug companies if everyone realized they could stay healthy by eating well and breathing consciously, instead of taking fifteen different pills.)  but essentially, the rise of cancer can be directly linked to the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  there's hardly any clean oxygen anymore, although taking conscious deep breaths will help pump whatever fresh oxygen is there throughout the blood system, and will alleviate exhaustion.

my theory is that our bodies get bogged down by shitty food and pollution in the air we breathe, and when our bodies are run down, we get irritable and depressed and angry and then we break down and feel like we can't do a single thing and then self-loathing kicks in.  in reality, we're just unhealthy.  so much of our mental pollution is caused by environmental and nutritional pollution.  and on that note, if anybody coming to the shows with matt would like to prepare a vegetarian or vegan meal to bring to me at the show, i will gladly sit down and enjoy it with you and we can talk about life and the world.  let's get together and hang!  fun times shall ensue!  love you!

chris

he said to me, "i feel like it's strange that we forgot the beauty of life.  somehow along the way, the almighty dollar rose to the top of our list of priorities.  i wonder why, but then i realize, oh, well, the food was unobtainable unless one had money.  and food is actually the most important element to sustaining life, after oxygen and water.  so obviously, if you couldn't get what you needed simply because you had no loot, loot became the most important thing in life, only as a means to get what you need to stay alive.  now, what still leaves me stumped is the reason this system was set into motion.  why is money important?  because we accept the system of withholding basic needs.  why do we accept the system?  well, if you don't play along by getting Bs in school, working for the boss man and toiling away month after month, you get locked out of the food supply.  of course, we could all decide to ignore the system and be homeless.  reject the system.  yet while this life of money offers absolutely no reward or relief, neither does the homeless life.  the actual problem is not a problem of creating different social programs.  the problem is a problem with our vision.  we cannot envision a different world where we share and work to help one another, because we are forced to work so hard just to get our hands on the bare necessities.  if you decide to reject the system and show your disapproval by protest, you will be locked out of the grocery store.  you cannot feed yourself long enough to sustain the energy it takes to change people's heart and minds.  how can you envision a new world, and show it to people if the minute you step out of the assembly line, you are cut off from your food." 

"you could always dumpster dive," i said.  he smiled and said, "true, this is true.  and yet the world is in need.  the earth is calling to us.  it is showing it's signs of weakness, saying, please, i need your help, we need to work together, i will provide what you need if you remember how in love we used to be."  he looked off toward the almond trees blossoming white fireworks.  "i love this world."  he said, "i want to reach out and hold it with my loving arms.  here in my arms we can find ourselves again.  we are nature and nature is us and we will see the way.  we will envision a new world.  we will find each other dancing in the cool blue-green moon shadow world.  we will embrace.  the only problem is first to see what the world is.  see the system.  see your approval.  see the inability to get around it.  and a new life will bloom out of the muck.  this is the way of nature.  things are born.  they bloom.  the whither.  decay.  death.  mounds of rotten earth.  out of the mud will rise new life.  new colors.  strange dreams alive in our eyes.  we are the world and the world will find itself through our hearts.  we must see.  we must begin.  let us turn towards the sun and stand singing heart songs sideways tongues flailing.  love, charles. love"  he said this and then they wheeled him away in his white overalls.  as they rounded the corner, i saw him smiling looking at something stuck to the wall of the asylum.

i open my eyes and see such beauty beyond words, feel strange and inept when i try to utter my heart song.  can't come close.  let us remember this beauty.  how dark and cold the world can be when we are caught up in the games of winning approval and acclaim.  accomplishments come and go.  flesh returns to earth.  dust is pulled up again into form and covers the earth as fertile fields for new life.  all around us.  within you.  without you.  it is here and nothing can be done to return for we have never been apart.  all there is to do is to remember.  life is whole.  is there a division between the sprawling world of nature and the concrete world of man?  is life cut up into little pieces?  ah, no, we know better.  we know this is merely an illusion.  part of the design which provides means of forgetting which creates the need to remember.  remember what?  remember life is sacred and whole.  nothing outside of life.  life is all.  no-life, or "death" is part of this magical creation.  or should i say, magical existence.  creation calls to mind the beginning of something, when in truth there is no beginning and there is no end.  there is the cycle.  endless cycle of the rise and fall of form.  form meaning these things of the universe which come to pass, such as stars and planets, life forms and inanimate objects.  there is an animating force beyond form which we call energy.  we could call it purple jello or starberry balloons for it is truly beyond understanding.  in fact, life in all its million manifestations is truly beyond comprehension.  to remind ourselves daily of this mystery and gift and magic is necessary in this world of forgetting.  we have forgotten we are part of this Sacred Movement of Life.  can you see when you open your eyes?  can you see it?  can you feel it within you?  do you know what it is?  can you hear me in your heart as i communicate this to you.  i am speaking to the world within you that has been ignored in modern times.  this life is magic.  why is it here?  how is it here?  can you remember every day that you are part of this sacred movement of life?  there is no one to blame for this great forgetting.  forgetting our nature as holy members of sacred life is part of the cosmic dance.  no one is to blame.  it is part of the design.  to suddenly remember this Gift of Life is Precious is the beauty of life itself.  let us not blame ourselves or others, generations past and present.  let us remind ourselves daily of our gift.  let us not toil amongst ourselves, fighting, lashing out, bitter blood boiling to burst.  it is ok.  it is alright.  we are moving forwards, not backwards.  we are remembering.  we will become whole again and we will make such a beautiful world for ourselves because we will also remember our great suffering which arose from our great forgetting and we shall know to avoid forgetting by consciously reminding ourselves daily of the sacred nature of Life.  forgetting this Sacred Holy Life is suffering.  yet, holy life is all there is.  no one and no thing are outside of this Sacred Life.  can you see?  can you feel the truth being written here?  how does this resonate with you?  can you feel your powerful true nature beginning to awaken?  can you sense the magic within you without you?  We Are Alive.  Rejoice.  Remember.  Return.

hey everyone, i'll be sending emails from savestheday.com from now on, and i wanted to check to see that it's working.  so if you get this, email me back to let me know you're out there.  we love you!

chris