Travel Log

Mama Bites Back

Star-Simone — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:05:49 GMT

NASA satellite photo of California wildfires on June 27th 2008.

Uncontacted Tribe Found Near Brazilian/Peruvian Border

Star-Simone — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:12:04 GMT

The deep irony is that contact with such people would destroy them but save us (if we really listened to what they had to say). Thanks again to Claudine for the amazing link! Check out this amazing website: www.survival-international.org/ And then check out this article: www.survival-international.org/news/3340 29 May 2008 Members of one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes have been spotted and photographed from the air near the Brazil-Peru border. The photos were taken during several flights over one of the remotest parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil’s Acre state. ‘We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist,’ said uncontacted tribes expert José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior. Meirelles works for FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department. ‘This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence.’ Meirelles says that the group’s numbers are increasing. But other uncontacted groups in the region, whose homes have been photographed from the air, are in severe danger from illegal logging in Peru. Logging is driving uncontacted tribes over the border and could lead to conflict with the estimated five hundred uncontacted Indians already living on the Brazilian side. ‘What is happening in this region [of Peru] is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilised’ ones, treat the world,’ said Meirelles. There are more than one hundred uncontacted tribes worldwide, with more than half living in either Brazil or Peru. All are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed and decimated by new diseases. Survival has launched an urgent campaign to get their land protected, and a unique film narrated by actress Julie Christie. Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist. The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct.’

This is so cool....

Star-Simone — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:51:08 GMT

Stop-motion graffiti animation from Buenos Aires... Deep. Thanks for the link Claudine :) www.vimeo.com/993998

Worth Checking Out

Star-Simone — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:42:31 GMT

www.TED.com

Inside my heart lives a....

Star-Simone — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:41:41 GMT

A digital collage of stuff, things, odds and ends created on a listless winter day in Oakland.

Hope

Star-Simone — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:00:59 GMT

1 hectare of rainforest can be leased from the government for only $1 a year.

My Tears Are Her Tears

Star-Simone — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:57:33 GMT

The sounds of the jungle were like listening to a lullaby. Cicadas and parrots, howler monkeys and the occasional distant growling of an unknown predator. Supposedly foreign and yet so familiar. Definately the feeling of coming home. The area that my mother and I went to was called Madre de Dios (mother of God), perfect. We had the opportunity to take a boat deep into the jungle with a naturalist guide. Most of the journey was spent in reverent silence hiking through deep jungle trails. The symphony of creatures a divine orchestra not worth disrupting with our own primate mumblings. We think we're so damn smart, but you get the sense that out there you would be lunch meat if you weren't completely at one with source... and that is precisely what the place did to me. It was a state of union. I felt so tethered to the earth from the moment I first saw it. Flying in over the endless expanse of green (I cannot begin to explain the overwhelming scale of that forest) I saw the slashed and burning plots of land. Rape of Mama Gaia to feed our greed. I cried more than once in that forest. There was nothing contrived about it. I couldn't stop myself. The tragedy of human ignorance is just too overwhelming. This feeling was only compounded by a visit to a remote native village (of the ese ase people, an ayahuasca tribe). To see the sad state of a population once living in union with the natural world now striving for survival in a world that requires something so abstract as money. Our guide told us that they had spent their government stipend on a generator and a TV/DVD set up. Painful. Since they already have a DVD player, in the spirit of integration (rather than than dogma) I plan on sending the ese ase village a collection of DVD'S that focus on themes of ecology and cultural preservation. The organization that we traveled with is doing alot to promote conservation through tourism (using funds to protect land that would otherwise be farmed), but there is still much to be done with respect to conservation. There is some hope in Peru, but Brazil is another story. Ironically, as I was explaining to my guide that my vegitarianism was largely based on the environmental exploitation of the beef industry, he filled me in that corn and soy farms were the next worst culprits. Almost half of the rainforest has already been destroyed, some chunks as large as the state of Oregon have been completely decimated. Every year unregulated selective logging of mahogany and other hardwoods destroys an area of pristine rainforest big enough to cover the state of Connecticut. When slashed and burned for cattle farms, 10.000 acres of destruction will only employ about 6 men (at meaneal wages). While the Amazon rainforest only covers 7% of earth's surface, it contains 50% of all species on earth. How blind and greedy do you have to be to think that destrying this is a worthwhile trade off? I have to focus on solutions (as always) because otherwise I would be seriously bummed right now. Those coorporate greed-mongers are destroying my ancestral home and I have some fire up my ass. Hello?!... Do they love their grandkids? Trade in the lungs of the earth for a quick profit?! Duh. Preaching to the choir here I know, but lets keep working hard to change the world, K? Mama Gaia and I love you so so much, star

My Birthday

Star-Simone — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:11:47 GMT

Blowing out another candle with song and friends and love abundant, I wished for peace in my heart as that is the place from which all other peace in my life shall arise. Grateful for this body, this life and an unspoken future of vast and beautiful things.

Astronomicalevity

Star-Simone — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:46:54 GMT

How does this new day worship the last? And does the sun forget its last seting? The moon must build altars to commemorate its dozen yearly deaths, as last season's constellation exits stage left to weave its private mythology below the horizon. You may ask why the elipse of each orbit traces its path alone. The answer is the catastrophe of two planets coliding as they meet at last in fateful union. I would be as the starbirds, fetching light freely to create my nest. I welcome you to shed the weight that binds you to a path around the sun. I welcome you to use your feathers and twine to build wings. I welcome you to propel beyond fixed things and suns. I welcome you. I welcome you as home.

I Have Seen The Taste of Birdsong With Its Sound Like Blue.

Star-Simone — Tue, 29 May 2007 05:58:55 GMT

I will come like leaves from nowhere, sheding nameless smiles from deep space to shine like starflowers in darkest days. Painting the demons with lovecolors and bursting light until there is no shade in which to hide. I have seen the taste of birdsong with its sound like blue and the joy of the fluttering in my body. I will... I will sing back the wings of this softness to hold me lest I fall.

Armagedon, Optimism and Sustainability

Star-Simone — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 09:27:34 GMT

Fear Paradigm 101: The state of the world is dire. Global warming. The right wing conspiracy. Ozone depletion. Landfills. Poverty. Disease. Nuclear and chemical waste. TV brainwash fast food nation. We are drowning. They will win. We may as well suceed from the blind sheep who follow "their" lead and start stock-piling food and amunition on remote land. The only solution is to create a new world away from the madness and pray for salvation. Shall I go on with this endlessly bleak and tired tirade? Or should I propose a new solution rooted in optimism and a hope for change? I thought you might say that... Optimism 101: We can choose to view the state of the world as either a crisis or an opportunity. The population at large has often resisted change towards sustainable solutions because many of these solutions have been posited by individuals or groups who embrace the dismal perspective of the fear paradigm. Does it realy make sense to invite change when we do not realy believe that there is any hope for the integration of new ways of being? How can any idea appeal to the masses when its most basic foundation is rooted in a lack of hope? If we believe that it all needs to fall apart completely in order to be rebuilt, we are dealing with a pretty hard sell. The only truly sustainable solutions to the state of affairs on this planet will be those that incorporate rather than suceed from the status quo. Sustainabilty is meaningless if it occurs only only a small scale. A few thousand eco-communities "holding it down" while the rest of the world canibalizes itself and the planet? That's an idea that seems to be a far cry from sustainable. Lets look at what we have. To implement a global change it must be appealing to everyone. Not just extreme leftists ( I consider myself to fall into this category but that is hardly the point). Lets make compassion and sustainabilty look as profitable and pleasurable as we know them to be. Outreach, Organics, Permaculture, Art, Renewable Energy, Eco-building... none of these things require you to grow dred-locks or live in a school bus. If you believe in the sucess of the new paradigm, help promote it in ways that are accessible. We can apply strategies such as marketing, advertising and smart business planing to all of these ideas. There is still time for us to become ninja chameleons and infiltrate the world of "the masses" with our magic and inovative thought. I'm probably just preaching to the choir here, but I needed to remind myself that there is hope, time and another way to influence change. Om Swasti Astu, The Original Bintang

Ibupartiwi (mother earth)

Star-Simone — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:00:14 GMT

The concept of the Tri Hita Karana (The Three Paths To Paradise) outlines the three basic tenets by which the Balinese Hindus are asked to live: First is Pawongan- respect for humanity and compassion for others Second is Palemahan- live in harmony with nature and respect for the environment Third is parahyangan- remember that all of your actions have a subsequent reaction (Karma) This simple yet extraordinarily beautiful system of belief sends ripples through the culture here making the Balinese people some of the most loving, graceful and considerate beings I have encountered yet. However there are always exceptions (stereotypes are limiting beliefs whether negative or positive). Since ariving here I have noticed that of the three principles outlined above, Palemahan (respect for the environment) largely seems to be on the back burner unless a specific holiday calls attention to honoring mother earth. If you keep your eyes open you will notice the makeshift village landfill sites by the river's edge, the burning piles of plastic after the sun sets and the ubiquitous candy wrappers that litter even the most remote jungle trails. As a teacher at an orphanage/charity school I am in a unique position to influnce young children who will one day bear the responsibility of cleaning up the mess made by older generations. After learning of the concept of Palemahan, I realized quickly that unlike many developing nations, Bali has a cultural precedent for ecological awareness built into the very foundation of the dominant religion. What luck! I decided to reinforce the concept of Palemahan through a series of art projects involving painting and recyled materials sculpture. The first phase of the project was to construct paper-mache fish out of recycled newspaper and cardboard. After finding that the fish were a raging success with the kids, I embarked on the painting project. Through a step by step process the children created paintings that depicted two oposing panels: on one side was a very sad fish swiming in poluted river, on the other side was a happy fish swiming in a clean river. The word Palemahan was then written on the painting. Tommorow's class will involve hanging the paintings throughout the village where the adults can see them, followed by a swim and trash pick up in the local river. Next week I have new class so I'm thinking that the plan will involve making paper-mache birds out of plastic water bottles and something to the effect of sad birds painted among the fumes of burning plastic bottles. Followed by bird watching perhaps?... With my hope restored by the limitless potential of children, I am lit up. I cannot express my unending gratitude to my greatest teachers. Thanks kids for recieving the download with open arms. I love you. Bless, Star

Potential Energy

Star-Simone — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 05:19:00 GMT

I have been presented with an opportunity here in Bali to extend myself further and truly walk my talk. My beautiful and inspiring friends Rob and Rachel are in the preliminary stages of building a sustainable eco-community in a jungle village outside of Ubud. The children of the village run through the halls of their massive complex playing and drumming on anything they can find. A rucus that knows not the limits of bedtime hours and reasonable volumes. With a strong desire to keep their home open to the villagers, Rob and Rachel have decided that rather than close the complex to the children altogether an impromptu "school" should be started at specific hours of the day. I have been asked to collaborate with Rachel and start this new "school". A blank canvas on which I can design and implement my own curriculum. Art, Ecology, English, Music, Hula Hooping... anything that I can dream of and some things that I can't. I can't wait to learn from these children. I know from experience that ultimately it is not I, but the children who will be the greater teachers. Humbled and grateful. Om Swasti Astu, Bintang (Star)

Tantek Bulan (Beautiful Moon)

Star-Simone — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 02:29:37 GMT

Rumor has it that when the Americans first sent a man to the moon, the people of Bali were less than pleased. It is said that a Balinese diplomat was sent to the United States in an attempt to halt the process of this lunar exploration. What distressed the Balinese people about the proposed mission to the moon reveals much about the culture of Bali. When the diplomat showed up in America to put a stop to the mission, he argued that it was indescent for a MAN to set foot upon the moon as she was clearly a goddess and only the feet of a WOMAN should touch her. Saya sedikit gila (I am a little bit crazy), Bintang (Star)

muddy bellybutton

Star-Simone — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 07:45:02 GMT

this night refuses darkness the celestial display brought closer by luminous skies doubled the ground is water here and starlight is offered no escape from its rightful home on earth meteorite and lunar glow fireflies and wabbling stars reflected on watery ricefield lotus pond river and surrounding sea my tears I am certain hold these shing facets too the small sorrow of longing for unatainable embraces released between the cosmos and this terrestrial sky in which I wade the cords pulled thin and taut by distance but not yet broken I lean back to feel the tug of your movement one last time before the final pull to snap this thousand mile string I fall completely backwards and laughing into the mud with the stars and fresh planted seed and the moon captured in the little pool that has gathered in my bellybutton. (with appologies and gratitude to the rice farmer in who's plot I chose to land)

Aging

Star-Simone — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 07:31:08 GMT

If you choose to pay attention while traveling abroad, the greatest lessons that we can learn are those about our own culture. While doing some research in an attempt to find an appropriate volunteer opportunity, I was graced with just such an instance of learning. I had intended to come to Bali and work either as a teacher for children, or as an aide in a hospice for the elderly. When I started making inquiries about local homes for the poor and aging, I was consistently met with the same response. The Balinese people who I approached regarding hospice work simply looked at me with bewildered and mildly disgusted expressions and told me that there was no such thing in Bali. In this country, I was told, the elderly are always cared for by their families or the village. It would be shameful and disrespectful to send elders away when they were close to death. The fact that such a thing is unheard of here in a country where families have substantialy less resources and time than those of the west speaks volumes. Though we as westerners are graced with such an abundance of wealth, it seems that we are impoverished with respect to our understanding of family and community. I understand that I am largely preaching to the choir on this point, but I might still ask if those of you reading this know what your grandparents are doing today. I certainly do not. In the world that I come from people are granted little or no understanding or experience of aging and death. As our elders' needs increase, we call on "professionals" to deal with them. A clean solution to a what we have come to see as a burden rather than a part of life. It is possible that with our rapidly evolving, information saturated culture the generational divide has become so great that we can no longer find a common ground on which to meet in compassion. I however have more faith in us than that. It seems to me that as we step foward to create our new world of intentional communities and conscious lifestyles, we must rember that our own parents (however difficult they may be) will one day need us as we once needed them. When that day comes what will you choose to do, and will our community welcome the aging with the same open arms as the people of places like Bali? One more thing to think about as we build the new world... Grace, compassion and gratitude. Salaam alikum, Star

Freefall

Star-Simone — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 05:34:28 GMT

By this time tomorrow I will be somewhere over the pacific ocean. Suspended improbably in a metal tube with wings thousands of feet above the winter sea on my way to Bali. What is the intention behind all of this movement? Some might say that this travel fetish is just an indulgence of my own egoic desires, but I have come to understand these experiences to be an integral part of my continuing education. I go in service. I come with gifts. I learn. I return changed. I travel in order to do voluntary outreach work. The medicine path. Healing myself by offering healing to others. Why travel to do this work when there is such great need on my own doorstep? The answer has something to do with de-contextualization. By stripping away the familiar and eliminating a common language I am challenged to meet other humans on the most fundamental levels. When I do social work in North America I find that I still have much in common with the people who I work with. Even if these people's stories differ sharply from my own, there is still a common cultural framework where we can meet. Certain basic social constructs are agreed upon and we are constrained by the same rules as well as liberated by many of the same freedoms. By doing volunteer work in other countries I come face to face with scenarios that I truly have no frame of reference for. It is on this un-common ground that I am bent into shapes that I did not know I would ever be able to contort into. Somehow in these unkown worlds I am able to forget my own story so that I can meet others in the one place that we can all understand... I see your heart. Call it yoga if you will. Breathe and stretch deeper. I love you all.

Lucidity

Star-Simone — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 02:04:24 GMT

"God's just a baby and her diaper is wet." -saul williams (graffiti art by Banksy)

Talking The Walk

Star-Simone — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 06:05:38 GMT

Sometimes I am my own mother speaking from a place of wisdom, that I have yet to arrive at. Hope is my tether to this alien terrarium. The parts of me that dissipate are caught like sea stars in her outer atmospheric nets. Piece by piece I will create a new collage with the gathered dust of my own scattered form. I am my greatest masterpiece. The flow of this creative process sometimes blocked and stagnant, will always open again. The fleeting inspiration of a single moment sending exponential ripples of clarity as light emissaries to shine even in the darkest of places revealing the infinate landscapes of my own beauty hidden just behind the shadow of my own illusion of density. Light light light light Let go, flying. Love inside out.

The Big Picture (Revolution)

Star-Simone — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 20:17:28 GMT

I know that I already posted this one, but it helps me recontextualize the significance and insignificance of my own sadness. I have been so blessed in my life. It is my place of extreme privilage in this world that gives me the oppotunity to just sit arround and "go through it." There are places that I have been on this earth where people do not have the luxury of wallowing in existential crisis for days. Some people are just too busy trying to survive. This poem is for everybody... (me, you, them, us): revolution The signal to a cell, the human birth, The lesson, and the stories told. The heart-shattering blindness of using more than our share. The innumerable host of stars has heard the sounds of our earth-visiting feet upon this terrestrial ball. Our cherished and perilous calling on this wayside planet, carrying land and wave, Love and life multiplied, and pain and bliss, Bears as chief treasures hope and love. In our little day, May our courtship with this nature be manifest, our pilgrimage to thread the earth with life. As in this guise we softly tread upon this fragile ground, in the eternities, doubtless we will hear a million alien gospels. Be prepared to read the inconceivable, to scan the myriad forms of love those stars unroll When in our turn we show to them our grace. Tell me, what form is more beautiful than us as we heal these wounds? I blow these words about you To cover our greatness in a veil of this hope. For now you all stand poised in the buoyant air. Pushed foward by these bright winds, and treading the sunlight. And the waves which precede us will ripple and stir the dust at their feet.

Dreaming It In

Star-Simone — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 07:40:06 GMT

I give thanks for: the love I recieve the love that I give the gifts I am given the gifts that I offer the body I am graced with the sharpness of my mind the serenity of my silence the eloquence of my words the art that comes through me the path of my service the endurance of nature the air the water the earth the forests the cosmos my true love my allies(s) my children my family my medicine the peace on this earth the joy I create the revolution at hand. With gratitude I welcome these things kindly home.

Gently Ferocious and Intentionaly Bipolar

Star-Simone — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 01:25:51 GMT

Making allowance for the whole me: i am that and that morpheus dancing the dervish spin i am that rage i am that compassion grace and fury i am swallowed whole and purged i am spit as diamonds from the mouth i am carried and burdened mirroring the vastness reflecting the polarities aware of the choosing to tear and be torn we are the medicine and i am fallen and rising again. Surrender Transmute I am so in love (with the big picture)

Happy Rebirthday

Star-Simone — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 02:46:00 GMT

You spoke your secrets into her ethereal cupped hands, she poured them back as light to fill your wounds and used her star-spun hair as gauze to wrap this truth about your body. And the flood has come of tears and endlessness. Once in this suffering you were lost and deciphered everything. There, you gathered all the birds and taught them to sing her name. Now these birds reside in your rib cage and from your mouth you will release a new one every day. Remembering loosing yourself. thinking there’s no return- she guided you with the glimmer of your own eyes, and set them in the sky as maps to show the other wayward travelers. because your soul was empty because, you handed all your illusions over to this greatness, You now have aviary arteries and botanical viscera, You have a soul to call home and the route to get to it, You are healed and understood, Now your love is the releasing of singing birds, the paint on canvas the words left behind, You’ve caught some purpose on your tongue like color on a flower blossom, to place in a vase in her honor, forever. on the mantle of your heart... Gracias Mama

Shine

Star-Simone — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:28:00 GMT

"The light she flows downhill like water, pooling up in the darkest of places."

Fortune Cookie

Star-Simone — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 23:42:06 GMT

A friend of mine on Maui has a bird who he keeps in a cage without a door. The bird always comes home.