July 11, 2013
Nature has always taken me by storm. Weather I'm running through crops from the car window in the west Texas plains or watching mountains bloom from the distance, this place never ceases to amaze me.
Besides the people and man made creations, when I hit the road, the world that's survived up to this point in time is something I always look forward to. I feel the difference in the wind, how it can go from sand paper scorching across your skin in Midland Texas to a cool breeze saving you from the heat of day just four hours north in Amarillo.
One of my favorite things is when I fall asleep in the car and I wake up to an entirely different scene around me. When I visit my friend's cabin in the Colorado mountains I see the wildlife change as well. I love subtle changes from the brown scruffy tail neighborhood squirrels I'm used to, to the black bushy tail starting from tree to tree instead of across streets. Watching hawks swoop down and guard the sky instead of the pigeons and sparrows pecking for crumbs in the parking lot.
Its all just such a change in energy for me. My mood, my heart, my mind set, once I reach a new destination. The big city I hit was Denver and to see such a huge city, downtown surrounded by mountains trying to overtake it. Watching the landscape fighting for its survival against industry and what we consider progress.
I wonder if any of this nature will still be left, when and if I have my children. Or if they will see trees tamed inside of malls as part of some "green" initiative or of there will be places for then to see wildlife in its natural habitat. As fast as we're expanding I wonder if I will get a chance to see what the world has to offer besides mountain and plains. If I will get to sight see before its bulldozed into another consumer based sink hole. Maybe the wind will keep punishing my skin while we destroy what's been since before we ever existed and be grateful when I feel the sun looking down on us for what we've done.
-DCR
Spotlights erasing all but the faint outlines of everyone in the crowd, the first thought that crosses my mind was how different everything looks on stage. Immediately followed by a rush of endorphins and a reassuring “oh yeah, I remember this feeling”, with the flick of my wrist we are off and running.
As the 90 second intro played, my brain scanned through everything I had prepared over the last 6 weeks/ two years, while I add bits of sonic flavoring to the mix, and let the melody slowly slip away, before unleashing a series of subsonic waves that made the whole room tremble in anticipation of the next.
Losing myself in the process of re-envisioning pieces of art I had spent so much of my recent life creating, each song occupied a loose framework that allowed me to be as expressive as possible, to work with the crowd to the have the best possible experience and to become one with each song while allowing structure to present itself as necessary.
Time now moving faster than ever, it felt as though every time I blinked another minute had passed. Before I knew it it was time for my last song and was being joined by epic dawn aka DCR, to do a piece that combined both of our respective voices/mediums. Having only practiced it a handful of time together due to the several hundred miles that physically separates us, even from the first mutual practice session, it was clear that this was a powerful combination.
Friends and family lining the front of the stage with a moderate collections of strangers filling in the rest, the sounds of a piano slowly built momentum, before DCR’s voice erupted through the peaceful melody, with words that struck our consciousness like thought laced blow darts. Each drawing inspiration and energy from one another, the finale kept growing into a tower of babylon that allowed all those present to understand the pain behind each note, every syllable, and to for a brief moment connect on an emotional level without ever saying a word.
For me this connection is what has always drawn me to live music, and after having the chance to once again experience the energy that come with performing I now feel more motivated than ever to put everything I have into building those same connections everywhere possible.
- Joshua Genius
Funny things these.
I have conflicting views on this particular subject. To base intelligence on an individual taking the recognized testing I feel, may be a little miss-leading. It doesn’t take into account other mitigating circumstances that could adversely affect someone’s mental process. Nutrition, literacy and other social inequalities arguably have a detrimental effect on such testing.
The concept that we know today was first (depending on which sources) developed by a German philosopher Wilhelm Stern in 1912 or by Lewis Terman in 1916.
However testing of peoples intelligence was done in 1904 by Alfred Binet who was commissioned by the French government to differentiate between intellectually normal children from those who were inferior.
Most testing uses the more modern version of the same testing called the Stanford-Binet scale.
Basically it looks like this:-
<70 feeble mindedness.
70 - 79 borderline deficiency in intelligence.
80 – 89 dullness.
90 – 109 average or normal intelligence.
110 – 119 superior intelligence.
120 – 140 very superior intelligence.
140 and above genius or almost genius.
So this leads me to a pertinent story of a man who wanted to become a cop.
Now for me I would EXPECT a cop or others like first responders to be smarter than most. However, that simply isn’t the case.
In New London, Connecticut a court ruling where a man (Robert Jordan) who wanted to join the force was not allowed to do so because he scored to high in a test. His equivalent IQ was measured at 125.
The police department confirmed the report citing that in order to do the job and not get bored it suited a person with lower IQ’S who would be OK with doing the same thing day after day.
This baffles me but also confirms my opinion of police around the country. Actually it is global given the rise of police states around the world.
I can mention that in the USA there are more police shootings and deaths by police who are in the process of arrest more than any other western country.
There is a direct link between IQ and murder rates, IQ and violence etc. How can we have an organization entrusted to ‘serve and protect’ when they are not smart enough.
-TDB
Punishing my Skin
Intelligence Quotient
I let myself go
to
Collect myself in the crowd.
Picking up on positive movements, I pass around the good energy.
Vibrations flow right through me as the sound is amplified.
Music makes me high
Feeling separate from the world
I hold onto that state and savor moments of consciousness that I can access for more than a lifetime.
Creating new neuropathways my body illustrates what is written in my soul, you can tell by the way I move.
-Sunny
Spotlights
Check out this video from our california family
