Miami

From time to time I feel this sense of an inner voice. After traveling around the Carolina’s just doing whatever we wanted, I was running up against this feeling of aimlessness. For a few years I had been imagining how epic it would be to just be free to travel and explore with no real time limits. Then once we were on the trip headed north I felt kind of aimless.

 

Along the way I had been practicing meditation, which is hard for me to do. One of the exercises is to to ask yourself, “What is the most important thing in the world is to you?” The idea is there’s no need to answer. Answering isn’t the point. But just observing the feeling that comes from asking yourself the question.

What is the most important thing in your life right now? We want to help the world. One of the stories I began picking up on was the idea that the first step towards helping the world, is to stop hurting it. This set me on a path towards sustainability. After all, I’d been driving my car around non-stop on this road trip.

And all of this led me to Miami. Ground-zero for climate change in Florida. The first trip was in early October. Angeline and I came down to shoot some footage and write some music. But our creative differences quickly landed us in a giant fight and she left. I don’t actually even know how she got home. She just got left. I wandered around for a couple of days and worked on some raps.


A couple nights before heading down, I was looking for organizations to get involved in and one organization called Before It’s Too Late popped up on my radar. Their message was, “We want to use art and technology to galvanize people to care about climate change.” The spirit of the project was so forward-moving and energetic that I thought, “Wow, how awesome would it be to get to work with these people.

 

Fast-forward a month or so and the founder of the non-profit has invited given me her home to stay in while I’m in town. Offering up the examples of work I’d done on the trip, the organization was excited to have me come down and collaborate. The project was a gargantuan mural complete with a mixed-media augmented reality dimension that included custom music scored by yours truly.

 

I feel the way I feel at the end of really heart-warming movie. Linda who runs Before It’s Too Late has welcomed me and listened to each of my crazy ideas about how their organization can have more impact. I feel like I’m finally accepting myself through the process of seeing people I look up to accept me. It’s impossible to say exactly what the future holds, but I don’t know how I could spend my time better than working with these insane artists and creatives.

Check out this ridiculous mural.

 

There are 16 animals that will be getting painted. That means 16 short songs that I’ll be composing for the AR experience.

Here’s a few of them

As for Angie and I, well I’m going to let this song do most of the talking. She came down to hike 50 or so miles in the Everglades and ask me to drop her off. I did. I picked her up where she left her car and took her to the start of her next journey. The drive back had me crying because I realized how beautiful it all was to be dropping her off. Her path was different than mine. But we both dropped each other off right at the start of our next journeys. And as much as I love and adore her and wish we could have shared a future and a home, a home is a path not a place. And ours just happened to head in different directions. Nonetheless, I feel warmth and gratitude for the things she shook me loose from, the indelible impact she left on who I am, and the ways I grew from us being together. 

My deepest thank you.
I promise that I will do my best to give you and your guests an amazing show. I will reach back out to you through email / phone soon.