Impulsive Investigation

the fall fruits of today’s wild temper-

Be like your father: act on an impulse
Be like your grandfather: investigate with great enthusiasm
Be like yourself as a child: i’m starting new projects!

follow your own wild, physical, creative instinct

why chancetraveler?

“Chance Traveler” is the title of a story by Haruki Murakami in which he considers the power of chance coincidences in our lives. In his story, Murakami relates two curious incidents involving his personal passion for jazz music and uses them to preface a charmingly human story of a friend, a first-rate piano tuner, who himself experienced a life-changing series of coincidental events. I have chosen “Chance Traveler” as my blog title and online pseudonym because of my own personal love for the beauty of coincidence and its importance in my life.

It's like when you read a book with an intriguing plot and find those same events strangely playing out in your own life. Or when you meet an old acquaintance at an unusual place and at an unusual time- after they have just been on your mind. Or when you discover that two things you love are surprisingly closely connected, like your favorite band being deeply influenced by your favorite novel.

These are the chance coincidences in our daily travels and adventures (or time spent lounging around, whatever), when we see how everything is connected. The I Ching, or Chinese Book of Changes, is concerned with the idea of what is known in Jungian theory as synchronicity- or how things connect to one another in unexpected ways. These chance encounters are everywhere in our earthly stratosphere, right there in the very crust of our backyards, let's just look for them. It’s often the simplest of these coincidental experiences that throw us awesome.

So as a “Chance Traveler” it’s all about getting out there and living and experiencing it Now and loving (and loathing) every bit of it. I have taken the phrase for my own name because I have made it my human business to travel in search of such beautiful life simplicities and point them out and do back-flips over them, because they so clearly reveal the wonder of life on earth. so Go live! experience it! And remember the small things! and the way that everything is connected!

Perhaps the master explained it best-

“ ‘That’s the key. And you know, this thought crossed my mind at the time: maybe chance is a pretty common thing after all. Those kinds of coincidences are happening all around us, all the time, but most of them don’t catch our attention and we just let them go by. It’s like fireworks in the daytime. You might hear a faint sound, but even if you look up at the sky you can’t see a thing. But if we’re really hoping something may come true, it may become visible, like a message rising to the surface. Then we’re able to make it out clearly, decipher what it means. And seeing it before us we’re surprised and wonder at how strange things like this can happen. Even though there’s nothing strange about it. I just can’t help thinking that. What do you think?’ ” -from “Chance Traveler” by Haruki Murakami

An Adventure

so we rolled into high point and it was a fucking hurricane!
the ghost city was wind-swept
ripping windows straight through whatever grip on reality i might have had

split thrilled grin
splatter rain and chilly mist,
mysteriously chill
and cool
after baking sweat at 3000' Celsius

the train depot let us breathe
and soak in the sights
and sounds
and vibes
as we swung from railings on the breeze-way
thunder rumbling on the tracks beneath us

and the lightning in the not-so-distant Now
not a threat,
but a guarantee
that the bustling business suits and briefcases of the
bermuda circus
were only crouching still behind concrete walls,
undetected eyeballs in the foliage of the grey-blue cityscape
watching curiously and cautiously
as we danced on kicks
softly
under our golden-orange rooftops
in the air of the cold blue indian summer

A Wild Sheep Chase

As with my previous post about Kerouac, there are probably more interesting insights to offer about this book, but my excitement about Murakami's style is simply too much to handle!- it just spewed ink all over this blank page in this sketchbook, with some sort of maniacal laugh i think, so i have ventured and seen that i must transfer this to digital, because the words have flowed through lava tubes of beautiful craftwork and up magma shafts of skillful beautymake from that sweet-awesome novel of his, and too much dangerous volcanic excitement has built up inside me. Mt. Fuji- man those vibrations are powerful!

the way he includes the perfect details of life and paints them together in a thoughtful shape so that this Clear vibe is created.

also the elements:
love story
adventure story
mysterious mystery story
picture of life story

with letters, introspection, outrospection, dialogue, characterizing, and more!

plus the Murakami signature whimisical elements of pure childish joy and crazy and it all, but often in the way of a coffee-drinking almost-thirty-something who likes the grey rainy beach and quiet bus rides to nice art museums, and chaos and love

and it's all just got this CLEAR BEAUTIFUL VIBE!

the great debate

Biden was real and direct. Hilary cooler than i thought. Obama the idea master. And Edwards was a joke:

"I don't know what rich is." - Senator John Edwards

How about this snippet from the local News & Record:

"...the former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee seems to be doing his darndest to make the case that he is a wee bit of a phony. Whether fairly or not, Edwards' $400 haircut; his $491,000 income from part-time work at a Wall Street hedge fund specializing in the financial techniques that he decries; and now word he collected a $55,000 speaking fee for discussing the evils of poverty raises that question"

Funny stuff! (or scary stuff?)

Babel Babble

This film destroyed me. Beautifully poignant and sad. Gorgeous looking and sounding. These lives of sand just falling to the wind.

Did anyone else notice the character connections with works by the awesome wordmaster Haruki Murakami?

-characters in the Japan scenes such as Haruki and Lieutenant Mamiya.

the flaming lips

The Flaming Lips were amazing and beautiful, with Wayne being the wonderful gentleman that he is and a crowd of the happiest folks. With lazers, conffetti, balloons, lights- it looked like "a goddamn circus up there"- all loud with sweat, and inspiration, everyone singing and screaming our lungs to greeting smiles, high pitch! and low-pitch., peace signs and rock signs, plus slow sing-a-longs with piano-toothed faces.

ready-SET-go!:
Ta! Da! - racing! for prizes of blissful grins - tapsmir - the TEST began - all of it RAD and FREE, battling robots TWICE with beautiful Yoshimi, then tracing veins of stars with our own pointed lights, stravinsky?, and hopeful politics (Yeah Yeah Yeah we vented our frustration!), with Taps he rallied our hearts and spirits in somber reflection, but Superman! Pompeii eruptions- reminiscing about loving about Jelly - Then we realized! (everyone) Encore w/ CC II, THE W.A.N.D. motherfuckers! and finally, beautiful delicious spoonfuls of happiness that had us leaving, bodies weighted with tons of hope and
love,
love,
love...


I've never seen a room of happier people, all just rocking out with the nicest dudes this side of the universe- The Flaming Lips.