Song of the Day (Alpha Shallows)

Alpha Shallows by Laura Marling

I’m obsessed with this album right now, I Speak Because I Can.  I bought it a while ago, but it wasn’t until the last few weeks that I really began listening to it over and over.  Music is strange that way – it needs to hit at the right time, in the right way.  Alpha Shallows is definitely my favorite track on the album, and I even started trying to learn how to play it.  It’s…not going that well.  I’m just not fast enough to play it, even though the chords aren’t all that difficult.  Maybe I’ll get it in a year (and if you’re one of those people who is able to learn how to play a song in two weeks – don’t you dare tell me).  In general Laura Marling is an incredible singer/songwriter, and I love her voice.  She is also really good at having that haircut.

¿Cat got your tongue?

I admit it.  I’m pretty lazy when it comes to actually updating friends and fam on life abroad.  Why have I been so lame about updating you all on life?  Because it is so overwhelming to try and consolidate my thoughts, and I really want to avoid writing endless paragraphs that I’m sure will only be skimmed over (as much as you might care about me).  I understand – I’m a scan-reader too, usually.  And let’s be honest, sometimes I’d just rather watch an episode of the IT Crowd than be all introspective and pithy.

I’ve been feeling the need to write again though, because I only have about three weeks left in Costa Rica before I make the journey home for the next chapter in my life.  In three short weeks, the “Living Abroad in Paradise” chapter will be closed, and I’ll have to start the treacherous journey through the “And Now What…?” portion of life.  That’s terrifying.  But also exciting probably, I don’t know.

Is it?

I’ve started getting the question, “How are you feeing about going home?” and my answer usually depends on the moment you ask me.  If it’s been after a particularly stressful day the answer is probably going to be get me the hell out of here.  It’s nothing to do with the people here – I just really need a vacation.  Then there are the days when we’ve been able to sit around the lunch table together for a long time laughing about the latest installment of the Telenovela that is our lives, and Luis or Yanory mention how sad they’ll be when we leave, and I start to feel reluctant about leaving.

Los Luis. “Luis el Guapo” y “Luis el Mas Guapo” – none of us are sure which is which. Those are the names they chose though.

This past semester was a hard one for me though.  Just before our Spring students came, my grandma Floy passed away, so while new students were flying into Costa Rica I was flying to Spokane for her funeral.  It was a rocky start to my last full semester and I don’t think I ever really recovered my full energy.  We also programed the crap out of the last few months, which was a lot of work.  Despite the busy-ness I’m still grateful  for the opportunity I had to see things that I hadn’t gotten around to in the previous year.  We got to enjoy the Festival Internacional de Arte in San Jose, the Wind Symphony came for their spring break to play in venues throughout Costa Rica, and I was lucky enough to have an excuse to channel my inner dirty hippie at the Envision Festival in Dominical.  It was A.Maz.Ing.  It helped me unlock the door to my third eye and realize my love of party pants.

One of the galleries that took part in the F.I.A. (Festival Internacional de Arte). They never let us in because the exhibit director never showed up. (boooo!)  It was a really cool space though!

One of the installments we saw during F.I.A. I’m a terrible art viewer and forgot to write down the name of the artist who did this. Your thoughts? On the piece, not on the fact that I’m a terrible person.

Another piece from F.I.A. in the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum). Again – I’m terrible and forgot to write down the artist’s name. I’ll do some research to track it down, and update this though.

Wind Symphony!  Apologies for the terrible photo quality.  I guess that’s about all you can expect from a $75 digital cam that’s about to explode on you.

In a community in the mountains near Puntarenas, giving master classes to kids involved with a program called SiNEM. It’s amazing: http://www.sinem.go.cr/

And Envision Festival.  I already did a post on Envision earlier, but these are some of the party pants I was talking about.  Watch out Spokane, you’re about to be punched in the face with coolness, by me, wearing these party pants (a.k.a. “bat-wings”).

Party Pants. For wearing to Pants Parties. But NOT for having a party in your pants. They’re probably actually party-in-your-pants-deflectors. Most likely.

And of course, I’m going to miss all this…a lot.   A lot a lot.  a lot a lot a lot.

Sunday trips to the Pacific Coast

Cultural events in San Jose.

Mountain Hikes in the Central Valley.

The Beach. I know Washington State has beaches, but come on. This is paradise.

Nicaragua.
(photo credit: Alina Reese – Spring 2012 student)

Backpacking. Here I am with my mates Anna and Allyn, waiting for our boat to Tortuguero.
(photo credit: Anna Gray)

And now for the next three weeks of my life.  My last three weeks in Costa Rica.  They’ll be pretty busy – the hardworking life of the CRC TA continues around here.  Right now we have Azusa Pacific using the facilities for their summer program.  It’s a smaller group, so logistically it’s going pretty smoothly.  Six people are much less work than twenty people.  We’ve got a few groups coming in to use the CRC for retreats as well.  This past weekend we had several families up here with little kids running around the place playing “good vs. evil portal” where, apparently, one kid got to decide whether you just came out of the good or evil portal and you had to act out your role accordingly.  Luckily I didn’t have to personally pass through any portals.  I got to stay playing the role of Bean, part good/part evil, but mostly evil (only in the mornings before my coffee and breakfast).

I’m both nervous and excited to leave Costa Rica.  I know it will be hard for me to slip back into U.S. culture – cell phones taped to your hands because apparently no one uses them for talking anymore, just for texting; the “time is money” mentality, which means conversations can more often than not seem ingenuous and hurried because we’re racing off to our next appointment; consumption obsessed; inward focused.  It isn’t that my job here hasn’t required of me a certain kind of time-obsession, but culturally here there’s a space for the ambiguous, and for embracing the moments when life is sort of driving you instead of the other way around.  There’s room for a genuine conversation even if that means you’ll be a bit late for your appointment somewhere else.    I don’t think that “Pura Vida” is always healthy, it can be dangerous if you were to always passively let life happen at you instead of taking some sort of initiative, but from affar I’ve observed that in the U.S. we’ve gotten too obsessed with trying to be the masters of every aspect of life, or with keeping to an over-booked schedule.  Sometimes its healthier to let go.  To cancel a few things on the agenda (or to burn the agenda altogether).  To embrace the ambiguous.  To throw our hands up with a bemused look on our faces and submit yourself to the fact that we don’t control everything, and that’s ok.  I worry that I won’t fit in when I go home, because that’s not how the dominant culture functions.

I’ve also missed out on a big chunk of the changes taking place culturally in the States over the past couple of years.  All of a sudden everyone has iphones, not just a couple of the rich kids on the neighborhood.  Everyone has even more expectations that we should be available at any given moment in the day.  I’ve been gone for the majority of the jobs crisis that’s hit the States, I’ve watched all of the Occupy Movement from abroad, and I’ve luckily been protected from most of the seriously disgusting negativity that’s plaguing the political arena these days.  I’m nervous about entering back into that atmosphere.  I don’t know if I have the energy to be a cultural outsider in my own home.

Luckily for me – I have loving friends and family awaiting me with open arms, with patience (please!), and with jokes on hand to help me laugh through it all.  I’ve been pretty wise about selecting “Pura Vida People” to welcome me home and help me transition. Hopefully they’ll be understanding when I make the intentional decision not to have an iphone.  So now what?  I begin a journey of learning how to merge two ways of living into one way of life for myself.  And that can be very tricky.

 

Song of the Day (Statistician’s Blues)

Statistician’s Blues by  Todd Snider.

Bobble Todd.

Lyrics (genius):

They say 3 percent of the people use 5 to 6 percent of their brain
97 percent use 3 percent and the rest goes down the drain
I’ll never know which one I am but I’ll bet you my last dime
99 percent think we’re 3 percent 100 percent of the time

64 percent of all the world’s statistics are made up right there on the spot
82.4 percent of people believe ’em whether they’re accurate statistics or not
I don’t know what you believe but I do know there’s no doubt
I need another double shot of something 90 proof
I got too much to think about

Too much to think about
Too much to figure out
Stuck between hope and doubt
It’s too much to think about

They say 92 percent of everything you learned in school was just bullshit you’ll never need
84 percent of everything you got you bought to satisfy your greed
Because 90 percent of the world’s population links possessions to success
Even though 80 percent of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population
Drinks to an alarming excess
More money, more stress

It’s too much to think about
Too much to figure out
Stuck between hope and doubt
It’s too much to think about
Pick it now

84 percent of all statisticians truly hate their jobs
They say the average bank robber lives within say about 20 miles of the bank that he robs
There’s this little bank not far from here I’ve been watching now for a while
Lately all I can think about’s how bad I wanna go out in style

And it’s too much to think about
Too much to figure out
Stuck between hope and doubt
It’s too much to think about
That’s right
It’s too much to think about
Amen
It’s too much to think about

Song of the Day (They Say I’m Different)

This song kicks ass.  Thank you Betty Davis.  Funky Betty Davis, not Hollywood film-star Bette Davis.

They say I’m different cause I’m a piece of sugar cane
Sweet to the core that’s why I got rhythm
My great grandma didn’t like the foxtrot
Nah, instead she’d spit her snuff and boogie to Elmore James

They say I’m different cause I eat chitlins
I can’t help it I was born & raised on’em, that’s right
Every mornin’ I’d have to slop the hogs
And they’d be gettin’ off humpin’ to John Lee Hooker

They say I’m different cause I’m a piece of sugar cane
And when I kick my legs, I got rhythm
My great grandpa was a blues lover
He’d be rockin’ his moonshine to B.B. King and Jimmy Reed, rock on now…

And that’s why they say I’m different
And that’s why they say I’m strange

I’m talkin bout Big Momma Thornton
Lightning Hopkins
Howling Wolf
Albert King
Chuck Berry (x3)
When I was sweet sixteen

And that’s why they say I’m different
And that’s why you think I’m strange

I’m talkin bout T-Bone Walker
(I get my) Muddy Waters
Leadbelly
Sonny Terry
Brownie Mcghee
Son House and Freddie King

Bessie Smith (x2)
Oh Hey
Bo Diddley have you heard

That’s why they say I’m different
That’s why they say I’m strange
That’s why they say I’m funky
Little Richard wow you sure showed ‘em you sure could sing
Alright alright

Robert Johnson (X3)
He played the blues for me

That’s why
And that’s why
And that’s why they say I’m different…

That’s why
And that’s why
And that’s why they say I’m strange…

That’s why
And that’s why
And that’s why they say I’m funky…

Envision Festival 2012

“What the Eff just happened?” is all I can really say about Envision Festival.  Just a couple of weekends ago, I had the glorious fortune to be able to hang out in Bahia Ballena in Dominical, Costa Rica for four days in order geek out on hippie love at day, and get my club on at night.  I know it sounds outrageous that I, The Bean, would ever want to dance all night, or not shower for a few days, or spend time at a beach…but it’s true.  I did it.

Envision is a festival where “a mix of conscious people from around the globe gather to share an elevated experience of culture, spirit and community in stunning raw nature!  …where time slows down and the outside world drops away…” according to their website.

And that’s pretty much what happened.  The outside world certainly did melt away while we were there.  It’s was unlike anything I’d ever been to before, but I felt pretty comfortable there because everyone was so laid back, and there were no real expectations for how anyone should act.  You could kind of…do…whatever.  And that was nice for a while.

Each day there were lots of workshops you could choose from, ranging from vinyasa body dance workshops and a “Way of the Graceful Warrior” yoga class (which I chose to go to), to an Urban Love talk and a “Meta Orgasmic Male” workshop.  Don’t ask me what they talked about in that one – I didn’t go.  It certainly seemed like the most popular class because the Tea House where it was held, was packed.

Each day at sunset there was a Sunset Ceremony, which basically meant group yoga under a sky-harp as the sun went down and the moon got brighter.  What is a sky harp?  It is a harp the length of a football field, that goes through the sky.  And after the sunset ceremony finished, the evening’s festivities started to kick into gear.

On the Sol Stage there were some really great bands playing anything from Reggae to Salsa, and just around a corner on the Luna Stage  there were some incredible DJs playing throughout the night, while just across from them there was a stage for acrobatics, fire twirlers, dance crews and belly-dancin’ bad-asses.

Envision Costa Rica!

My favorite memory of the whole weekend was on our last day, just as we were packing up our clothes and tents.  This guy, who earned the nickname “Puddle O’ Gold,” was pretty noticeable the whole festival.  Especially at night.  He was kind of a mainstay in the dance area, and could usually be seen on the tiny little stage right in front of the d.j.  He was wearing skin tight, gold booty shorts, with a golden spandex hat to match, and an unbuttoned mesh shirt to make the whole outfit juuuuust right.   If this is what you were picturing, then you’re correct.  He was usually dancing way harder than everyone else, and way more lit up than everyone else.  I don’t think he stopped moving the entire weekend, and we all know there is only one way to accomplish such a feat.  One night when Lara and I were dancing, he stumbled through the crowd to us, first of all to compliment us on our dance moves, secondly to repeatedly yell that he needed both water, the bar, and the bathroom.  All at the same time, of course.  These are the things we knew about Puddle O’ Gold before that was even his official name.

So on Sunday, while we were packing up, we could hear P.O.G. conversing at his highest attainable volume with all the campers along the dirt road that lead to the beach, where our campsite was.  As he got closer to us, we knew there would be an encounter.  I was inside my tent packing up my clothes, but just on the other side of the tent was a camping chair with my water bottle in it.  P.O.G. stumbled over, and with the look of a great explorer discovering a cool, fresh stream of water after a week in the desert, the fool jacked my water bottle.  I kind of amusedly yelled out the window, “Hey!  Where you goin’ with that thing?  That’s my water bottle!”

“Oh ho! Well then!  It’s your water bottle is it? Do you know what happened to me last night?  I went to bed and woke up a fuckin’ puddle of gold!  A puddle…of GOLD!  That shit cray!  Craaaaay!” (Lil’ Jon style).

Of course he did.  What else would he wake up as?  He proceeded to try and walk off with my water bottle again (he thought he’d done a good job of distracting me with his pivoting announcement of self realization), so Lara…ever faithful Lara…just kind of grabbed the thing out of his hand and walked away.  He instantly turned into a 5 year old playing tag…but a really cracked-out, booty-short wearing 5 year old.  For the next minute he just chased Lara around screaming “You wanna’ lick my gay abs?  Lick my gay abs! That shit cray!”  I swear, I just sat there waiting to see what would happen next, partly hoping it would turn into something even more ridiculous.

Eventually P.O.G. left us, but he ran into more members of our group down by the river lagoon that everyone had to cross to get to the beach.  From what I gathered, dear P.O.G. was down there sitting in the water claiming to be a unicorn and telling everyone else they were ants.  Poetic.  Truly.

It was the perfect way to end the festival – just another inexplicable moment.  If you’re ever able, you should definitely come to Envision.  It was pretty good.

Song of the Day (Untitled 101)

Although his names suggests it, this is not in fact the boy who cried wolf.  Peter Wolf Crier is in fact a musicianship duo crafting itself after The Actual Boy Who Cried Wolf ™ from Aesop’s Fables.  No, no…dear reader, these lovely chaps will hopefully not be eaten by a wolf.  We can all simply wish they continue to make these tasty ear treats for us to enjoy.

Untitled 101 by Peter Wolf Crier

Song of the Day (Strictly Rule)

Strictly Rule by Vetiver

Find a convertible, plan a road trip down The 101, and enjoy.

Song of the Day (Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair)

I really love this version of Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair by Joan Baez.  Although, Nina Simone’s version definitely gives me goosebumps too.  Her’s sounds almost like a haunting Irish folk song.

Song of the Day (Learnalilgivinanlovin)

Learnalilgivinanlovin by Gotye

Such good hair.

The more music I hear from Gotye, the more I’m loving him.  This song has a pretty different vibe from “Somebody That I Used to Know,” and almost feels like a song out of the 1970’s disco funky-times era, like I should be doing that back and forth head-boppin‘, finger-snappin’ dance move.  With a modern Gotye-twist of course.

Song of the Day (Drying of the Lawn)

I’m in love with the Tallest Man on Earth.

She said I cannot tell you why, she said I’m in a rush
There are softer dreams for you to think about now love
Things that you have seen this night that run by that the river’s flow
I can use you if you’re in the flame, I’m a growin’ old

And no this is not the summer dream she said
It’s just the drying of the lawns I want to leave out there

Well I’ve said I’ve sailed the frozen corners of the dark Atlantic Sea
And I drifted on the waves and the mirage beneath
And never have I felt such numb and pointless searchin’ true
As when I set my eyes and torched the plans on the mark of you

And no this is not the summer dream she said
It’s just the drying of the lawns I want to leave out there

She said you follow me like sheep that think this king could do some harm
But I tell you boy I’m frightened still with a sister’s heart
I set my eyes upon the shore whenever you wake up
I’m leavin’ because you don’t feel what you’re dreamin’ of

And no this is not the summer dream she said
It’s just the drying of the lawns I want to leave out there

But I will stand down in the hallway with no thought to leave the set
Of a movie I will sure as hell not end just yet
If pain and awful romance then this mornin’ is for us
It will never ran and our last dream will leave this house

And no this is not the summer dream I said
It’s just the drying of the lawns that want to leave us here
Oh it’s the drying of the lawns that want to leave us here