The Beat-en Path

A Documentary Film:

If you find yourself in a world that fits like a shoe that was made for someone else, with rules that serve some ancient paradigm, if you wake up every morning because you hope to make a difference, if you have that inconsolable drive, the one that stirs and yearns and abuses you endlessly, if you scour the earth for meaning, and you'll never settle, don't give up, you aren't alone.

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Here's the concept:

Our mission this summer is to travel around the country meeting everyday people who just want to make a difference. On this journey, we believe we'll discover a world full of people using their lives as a canvas to create beauty and innovation. If we can prove this theory, then perhaps this world won't feel as lonely, perhaps we won't feel so hopeless, perhaps the war that we should be fighting is the war on apathy.

On Challenging Reality: An Uphill Battle

The Role of Psychedelic Imagery in Music

Do you think it's a universal correlation that music goes hand in hand with trippy visuals? Do you think Mozart envisioned the exhibition of his symphonies alongside something akin to a laser show or the last 30 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Do you think we've collectively changed as artists?

Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness (Universal Motown Records)

Videos like this one used to freak me out. Halfway through, I actually had to turn this one off the first time I watched it.

Grover's Metaphysics

The Book

I was recently reminded of a book my mother used to read to me as a child. I have to say, just the thought of this book stirs up an incredible vortex of childhood memories. The book is one of my earliest recollections and I would go so far as to say it is the most influential piece of fiction I have yet to come across.

The Monster at the End of this Book, by Jon Stone (Illustrated by Michael Smollin). Please take the time to read this book right now. It's just over 400 words long and it changed my life.

For those of you who'd rather not: it's a book who's main character, Grover, is terrified of the ending, for as the title suggests, there is a fucking monster at the end of this book. Despite his industrious attempts at halting your progress, you of course reach the end only to find that Grover was the monster all along.

FireSides #1 - Part 1: Cellini's Rave

FireSides is a repository of histories, legends, and anecdotes. Many of these stories are based in fact, while others are only rumored to be true. Like the flickering campfire, these tales aim to briefly illuminate life's mysteries, fueling the flame of curiosity.

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Here's what we know for sure:

While virtually all other Italian city-states had since adopted some form of monarchy, the Republican Commune of Florence remained a bastion of civil liberties. It's people took massive amounts of pride in knowing that no matter what station of society they were born into anyone could rise to the top. But this golden hippie paradise was perched atop a tenuous thread. Ambitions from within and without were constantly threatening to destabilize this brotherhood. When they weren't stringing people up in la piazza, power mongers in Florence were commissioning massive art projects in order to sway public opinion into their favor.