For past three years it has become a custom for us to go for a week to a forest by Pnetluky to an old summer camp. For a week, we pretended to be kids, divided ourselves into groups, competed in classic summer camp games, and so on. This year however most people don’t have enough money or vacation time to be able to take part, and the number of applications was really low. So this year, it’s not going to be a summer camp for grown-up kids, but rather an open workshop. I can only tell that we’ll be painting a lot, since I don’t know what else will the others come up with, but it will definitely be fun. I didn’t plan to go to the camp, but as it changed to a workshop, I just can’t miss it. Lots of intelligent, creative individuals around, great nature, what more could one want.
And what’s best, if you’d like to come too, it shouldn’t be a problem, just write me an email (I won’t post it here, it’s not hard to figure it out) or contact me otherwise. You can come for a day or for the whole week, as you want. Who’ll be there? People from Vytvarny Krouzek Ctverecek, making psychedelic decorations, guys from MimoTV, and quiet a few others. I guess it will be a pretty rich experience. Here are a few pictures from the first “psyoneer summer camp”.
Training with Aliacte
I took part in a two day training of my Dad’s company, just for fun. I only knew it’s going to be about positive approach, and I was quite curious what it will look like – I could always leave, right?
However, Masha, a very energic lady who did the training, is very, very good in what she’s doing. Not only I felt (and still feel) motivated, but I also learned what I hoped to learn – new ways of how to bring people’s attention to the really important things in life and how to explain these topics without resorting to anything that may sound somehow “spiritual” in any way.
I always find it interesting to watch people’s reaction to matters like general approach to life, taking responsibility for one’s actions or self-exploration. A surprising number of Dad’s employees already knew much of what Masha was telling us, and they enjoyed how well she could present thoughts which people usually find difficult to express. But it was also nice to watch reactions of older people, who most probably never got a chance to hear these matters explained so clearly. In a one on one talk, some of them would even object. However, seeing how their colleagues all agree that what Masha is saying is true made them stop their protests and actually listen. And at the end, it was possible to see that they were deeply moved and that the training made them reconsider how they think and how they live their lives. Damn, I’d like to be as good as Masha in this :)
I would definitely recommend this training to practically everyone – I don’t know about Aliacte in general, but Masha is really good.
Videos from past Boom Festivals
What about a few amateur vids from past Boom Festivals, just to tempt?
YouTube playlist with videos from Boom Festival
Also several vids at Google let you faintly get the feeling…
Bioles[t]
YouTube playlist with videos from Biolest
Bioles(t) is over. Again. For the second time, we’ve had this party in the Tisina valley near Rakovnik, in a spot that is actually a children’s summer camp. Since the place looks like it was made for happenings like this one, and the owner and his family are a group of incredibly nice and helpful people, Bio-whatever was again one of the best parties of the year (I’m saying that knowing that I don’t know what’s coming). It was a wonderful flow experience, and it was just enough to dissolve the sediments of daily life. As you can see from the number of videos, I’ve been running around recording them pointless with my camera and later with my phone (Panasonic Lumix FZ20 and Nokia N70 respectively, I’m telling you the exact models just so that you could consider the video quality, which particularly with the phone is fairly useful, also due to the fact that I could record continually for several hours). I’ve also written something like a report.On Friday night, the place was a lunatic asylum. Well, it happens on psytrance parties – it takes some time to shed the sediments of “ordinary life” and it is not always a pleasant view, in combination with all the acid and E and whatever else people take. Particularly people who haven’t had much experience with the deeper levels of themselves often don’t know what’s going on at all. However, musically, it was good. There was some unpleasant delay, but I liked it overall – there were enough things to do for the few whiles when the music wasn’t perfect. Also visually it was a feast, particularly MimoTV projections were great. They’ve picked up a lot of organizational stress, because they too were taking part it the preparation of the party, and they were putting all the harsh determination into their projections. The result was a mindbending mix of sound and visuals, exactly the way it should be done in psytrance. However, not all people took it well. It is always interesting too watch other people on a psychedelic trance party, since the way their nature is manifested in them is often unusually pure and open. However this time, a guy got cought in a slightly unusual way of behavior. His show included lots of archetypally obscene gestures and gradual laying off of his clothes. Well, why not let him jump around, it’s fun, right? It was, until he, completely naked, went to visit the DJ and started climbing on his table. Several guys took the initiative and drove him away under the threat of violence. You could see the guy next day, walking around the camp. He looked irresolute, like he didn’t know what to make of his behavior, and how to approach the people who have seen him the night before. He left before evening. You don’t really want to come to a psytrance party unless you’re ready to look at yourself and others in often very unusual ways. Everything that was building up in your life dissappears. It is relatively easy to accept it and flow with it, but it frequently happens particularly to people who either don’t know how or don’t want to deal with themselves, that instead of abandoning their possesiveness, letting go off their fears and concerns and enjoying their natural role they cling to their illusionary ego with all its illusionary features, and they surrender their control to it. If you believe you’re an exhibicionist, well, there you go. Encelophatycis, who came from Macedonia, provided us with incredibly massive sound and entertaining music. You could see from the way he was driving his music with his gestures that he really knows his music well. Ladic, whom I often praise here as one of the best psytrance DJs I know, provided us with his dawn music, although it was daylight already when Encelophatycis played, but it didn’t matter, the mood was right for it. Then Pangea and later Embryo from MimoTV went into the morning and day sound, and we enjoyed a day in the sun. I slept through the Saturday night to wake up just before dawn. I felt the mood was much lighter then the day before, and although DJ CyBird didn’t really amuse me, after him it got better with Pangea and Marty and the day was again filled with sun and dancing until late in the afternoon when the sound had to be packed. You can watch the videos to see what Embryo put up as last tunes. The week of creating decorations and preparing the party was of course much more private. It took me some time to get cought in the creative spirit, but it finally happened, and overall I think we did a pretty good job, considering that our budget for decos was basically zero, as usual. Unlike last time, when we tried to create a common feeling with all the wooden creatures, this time we focused more on separate “elusions”, often working with words and memes, and other exponates. Just check the pictures and videos. Pics, pics, pics, pics, pics, playlist of my videos on YouTube. Let me know what you think!
Bioles[t] party flyer and info!
One of the most atmospheric psytrance parties in Czech republic. It is a two day openair party in the Tisina valley near Kozlany, Rakovnik, 80km from Prague. As the name suggests, Lest meaning Elusion, the party is going to be about lifting the veil of elusion, and everything else you might like about openair psychedelic dance parties. We’re departing already on Monday to decorate the place (early arrivers are usually welcome), as we want to make this a remarkable event. Further information – flyer, web with flyers from past years – and English details. I’ve also dug up some some of my photos from those past years. More on the “not to miss” party note, another big thing is closing in – this year’s Boom festival in Portugal. Highly recommended stuff, check the pictures from last years. Both the spot and the party are simply amazing :)
Sweat lodge at Skridla
It was a refreshing weekend in the Skridla estate. Indian sauna (sweat lodge) in icy mud and puddles of water was a one-of-a-kind experience, as well as following night with a drumming ritual.
As I went together with my friends, we have been able to enjoy the change of perspective which with taking part on a different kind of “psychedelic” session then the everlasting parties. Such thing as meeting other groups of people with already established relations is generally remarkable, but now try getting naked with all those people on the first evening, go outside into the snow, step around a fire in freezing mixture of mud and water for a while, and then sit around the stone pit for a few hours, chant mantras and shout and so on… yeah, isn’t it romantic? Bad luck I only was able to spend first two rounds in there, but I was at least able to help with the last portion of stones.
Drumming also was a “flow experience”, as was our following music session with Dosta.
Back to the underground
Yesterday’s night was quite interesting. I went to a psytrance party, which had basically no promo whatsoever, so earlier this week most people were still wondering whether it is real or fake.
We quickly learned that despite the fact that it is organized by someone basically unknown, in a mysterious place where no party has been done before (as far as we knew – which was wrong, there were at least several punk concerts, but nevermind), but otherwise featuring Iguana from Naked Tourist and Mubali, it is really going to happen – Iguana and Mubali personally said they were coming, and the guy who organized it got backed up by people with more reputation. And it was actually pretty good.
We arrived at midnight, when there were about 30 people, the sound was good, the place was an old building used for balls, as a theater or a gym, and the feeling there reminded me of the old days at Tetrahydroclub in Brno (RIP). It was nice to have enough space for dancing for once, both Iguana and Mubali played fine, although Iguana’s set could be longer and Mubali’s on the other hand seemed to me even too long for its own good. No big deal, however, it was good music, and it all had kind of underground atmosphere. So, thanks.
Alan Watts
I’ve known and listened to the lectures by Alan Watts for some time now, spreading them among people who know English enough to understand them. However, since mp3 it’s a very practical format to use as an argument in online discussion, I started looking for some transcriptions or fulltext books, and I want to share what I found.
So, who is Alan Watts and why should you care?Alan Watts is said to have brought the ideas of (zen) buddhism, taoism and eastern philosophies in general closer to our “western” way of thinking. His lectures however are far away from what one would consider as “religious”. He doesn’t operate with hazy concepts and construct philosophical structures – he keeps it really simple, providing at the same time deep insights of mostly psychological nature. Strongly recommended for everyone who consider themself, or would like to become, open-minded. And for everyone else too.
http://deoxy.org/watts.htm – lots of materials
The Relevance of Oriental Philosophy – lecture
UPDATE: Alan Watts Podcast – lectures
Stolen music
As you may have read, my computer was stolen while I was away for Christmas, and we have thus lost all the music we have been working on with Dosta for past few years. This means that most our past projects will stay unfinished forever, and therefore we see no reason why we shouldn’t share them as they are. Of course I sorted the tracks a bit, so that people who don’t feel like listening to musical sketches can easily pick tracks more worthy of their attention. The unfinished tracks are often just “daily builds”, made after we finished a longer session and wanted to have mp3 version of the track online and be able to listen to it elsewhere.
If you want a representative sample what we have been up to with Dosta, listen just to the “almost finished” stuff, because while those tracks are finished, except for some polishing and mastering, those below are often just a bunch of ideas on a drum line.
The sound won’t be great, because we did it all on ordinary speakers, just two guys and one computer, but, well, if you feel it gets better after you tweak the EQ, just do it.
I will also add some DJ sets and our old tunes, since even in those days there were people who liked these, and with some of them I’m amazed on how many sites I can find them.
Burglary
Our house got broken into sometime during the weekend. My computer was stolen, then my new LCD display, and several other things.That means we have lost all the music we have done in last two years, because the backups were in CD cases, which got stolen too. Fortunately, most of my text documents were backed up online and I don’t have to write most of the school stuff again. It seems that it was done by someone who visited my flat, and it makes me wonder… Anyway, it is almost a pleasant feeling to have lost so much, because there isn’t much left to loose in terms of precious data. There are also pleasant things, I have a new flatmate, a black cat which followed us back to our cottage on Friday, and spent the weekend with us as if he knew us for quite some time.