Getting Back on the Bike

I fell down a YouTube black hole of street bike gangs. Waves of riders doing wheelies down public highways in broad daylight. It felt like a surreal version of Mad Max. Oddly dirtier because it's real. A snapshot of another side of the world. Like Florida or something.

What really had me scratching my head was what would happen when a rider would crash. The gang would huddle around him until he caught his bearings and jumped back on the mangled bike. They kept momentum. No hesitation. Just ride. 

MOTORCYCLE CRASH COMPILATION VIDEO 2014 of stunts gone bad on the highway. Insane motorcycle stunts gone wrong caught on tape. Watch stunt bike riders crash attempting wheelies on the highway that end in epic fails. Motorcyclist of all skill levels attempt to perform tricks on the public streets that result in huge accidents.

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I've zipped by the crossroads and fallen off my bike.

Where am I? In the Land of the Occasional Blogger. And I hate it here. As hard as it is to dive deep and write something meaningful every week or two, writing about not writing is leagues worse. 

My great idea for sending out weekly emails didn't work out. I think I meant for it to be easier and more fun, but it ended up being too easy and not done. It didn't stir me to hunt down new things to share, and I don't think I was contributing more than anyone else does on their social networks. 

The truth is I need to get back on the bike.

Like Kevin Smith. The Jersey-born writer/director almost swore off filmmaking altogether. He polarized people by making an indie horror movie like Red State after being known as the silly goose who made Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob. But the truth was Smith found a new platform - podcasting. He started smoking weed when most adults stop and Silent Bob became talkative Kevin Smith. 

And then there was Tusk. Born out of that cloud of weed smoke on Smodcast episode #259, Smith jumped back on the bike with a vengeance. He wrote the dark story of a man maliciously turned into a walrus against his will. Yeah. 

Hear the origin of Kevin Smith's new film TUSK in the podcast that started it all! AT PARTICIPATING CINEMAS FROM OCTOBER 9 October 9: Dendy Newtown, Sydney Cinema Nova, Melbourne Cineplex South Bank, Brisbane Palace Nova East End, Adelaide October 16 with sneak previews October 10-12: Luna Leederville, Perth In this modern-day monster movie, a journalist finds the story of a lifetime in Mr. Howe, a worldwide adventurer with amazing tales and a curious penchant for walruses.

Better yet, this is just the beginning. Tusk is the first of Kevin Smith's Canadian trilogy. Yoga Hosers, the second film of the trilogy, is set to rock the world soon. The new trailer gives you everything you need, including mini Nazi bratwurst soldiers.

http://www.joblo.com - YOGA HOSERS Official Trailer (2016) Kevin Smith, Johnny Depp Horror Comedy Movie HD Two teenage yoga enthusiasts team up with a legendary man-hunter to battle with an ancient evil presence that is threatening their major party plans.

You might be concerned for a critically-acclaimed comedy director turned podcaster and wacko B-movie maker, but it makes perfect sense for no one other than Kevin Smith. The truth is when you're making something genuinely your own, you're flexing the hardest part of creativity: you're asking someone to see you, completely. Personally and professionally. Will you hire me? Will you read me? Will you hear me? Will you get me?

Lead signer of The Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer once said, "Asking is fundamentally about connection, and so is art. When you boil everything down to its simplest components, little protons and neutrons, art is about people connecting with people at a really, really basic level."

As hard as it was to ask everyone to sign up for weekly emails, it's even harder to admit I don't want to do that anymore. While writing something original might be difficult, it's worth it. I realize that now. It might suck up my brain on Sunday afternoons, or get me out of bed in the morning, but I'm willing to do it again.

Louis CK put the final nail in the coffin. The comedian inspires me with every single email he writes. Because they are so few and far-between, they feel important and personal. He doesn't feel the crushing need to stay relevant by bombarding your inbox and attention. He just offers himself. He writes in plain text and says thing like, "Hello donut eaters and those who don’t eat donuts (I think that covers everyone)."

The fear has always been that people would be annoyed or disappointed in my infrequent posting or jumping around, but that's part of my life and my creative process. Shit happens.

And all I'm left to ask is will you get me?

How to Experience Dreams of the Waking World

"Am I dreaming?" - It's a periodic question raised in A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming to help you differentiate from the waking and dreaming worlds. Yup, it's like the totem in Inception. And although we're all very familiar with that movie, even scientists are still very unfamiliar with why we sleep and, arguably, more importantly, why we dream.

Introducing A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (Workman Publishing-Fall 2013). Written by expert lucid dreamers, this book will help you become awake inside your dreams. If you were to travel down the Amazon River you'd need a guide to tell you how to get there, how to navigate the terrain, and what to do when dealing with the natives.

Lucid dreaming is knowing you're dreaming when you're in it, not simply reflecting later on in the waking world, like most of us do. It is the very real ability to interact with the subconscious playground of your mind, so the field guide says. 

My mind was screaming serendipity when I found myself at the launch party for the guide book last night, only a five minute walk from my new apartment. Listening to the authors speak about how the book came to creation, I couldn't help but feel like this was why I moved to a giant city, to crash into opportunities and moments that would zig and zag my course every day.

Jared, one of the authors, made it a point to note the surrealism of the whole experience of launching the book. The three authors shared their lucid dreaming experiences over the years and dove into the project of writing the book. They started to use Kickstarter to crowd-fund their project and even accidentally met one of the founders of Kickstarter on a whim, and he later featured the project on the site, boosting their contributions. And then it was picked up by a publishing company and spread even further than those with the faith to hand over money to have it made. 

Surrealism was the hilarious period to Jared's comments on the process, but he made an excellent point to the concept of the book. The excitement and adventure of being able to dream anything we want when we fall asleep has real world consequences. It can make you more aware that the two worlds don't have to be that different, and dreaming in the waking world can be just as wild and amazing.

And so there I found myself, chatting with the authors in the Black Rabbit bar down the street. And right now I'm writing with a new kind of faith and understanding that this world could be just a dream. It's worth remembering, checking. "Am I dreaming?"

The challenge is to experience it, whether in the waking world or dreaming world. Louis CK seems to have his hand on the pulse of this idea. He hit a chord once before on Conan with the now viral video Everything is Amazing and No One is Happy. And he did it again most recently with his argument against the constant, ubiquity of cell phone attention, particularly for children. We're so buried in our phones and digital communication that we forget, or worse, never learn, how to be an empathetic, interested person in real-life communication. We forget that life can be sad sometimes, and we're not sure why. Louie makes this easier to digest than anyone I've ever seen or heard.

Why? Well, it's a melancholy tale filled with despair and hope and a Bruce Springsteen song. More CONAN @ http://teamcoco.com/video Team Coco is the official YouTube channel of late night host Conan O'Brien, CONAN on TBS & TeamCoco.com.

Jason Silva might have the right kind of response to follow it up. What Silva says about the existential bummer of our mortal love is so beautiful to me now, I had to write it all out here instead of rely on the video (which you're free to watch too):

"There is a sadness to the ecstasy. Beautiful things sometimes can make us a little sad and its because what they hint at is the exception a vision of something more, a vision of a hidden door, a rabbit-hole to fall through but a temporary one. That thing ultimately that is kind of the tragedy. That is why love simultaneously fills us with melancholy. That's why sometimes I feel nostalgic over something I haven't lost yet because I see its transience.

And so how does one respond to this? Do we love harder? Do we squeeze tighter? Or do we embrace the Buddhist creative of no attachment, do we pretend not to care that everything and everyone will know is going be taken away from us? I don't know if I can accept that. I think I'm more side with the Dylan Thomas quote that says, 'I will not go quietly into that good night but instead rage against the dying of the light.' I think that we defy entropy and impermanence with our films and our poems. I think we hold onto each other a little harder and say I will not let go. I do not accept the ephemeral nature of this moment. I'm going to extend it forever. Or at least I'm going to try."

More on HuffPost Good News: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/jason-silva-shots-of-awe-existential-bummer_n_4269849.html RYOT: http://www.ryot.org/video-jason-silvas-existential-bummer-video-will-turn-your-despair-into-inspiration/470433 Dazed Magazine: http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/17731/1/jason-silva Watch Jason speak more on Existential Bummer on CBS This Morning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wP6XsRt57k "Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever" -Ernest Becker.

What we need to do is feel it. Experience the sadness of being alone, without texting someone. Experience the happiness of sticking with a skill or habit, and reaping the benefits. Take the risk to make something surreal.