heathervescent

A 10 to the 9

I'm at 30k feet. Looking at the window. For some reason, my mood always lifts when I'm in an airplane. It's the traveling I guess. Anyway, I'm starting down at the snow capped Sierras, Tahoe, Mono Lake, then Pyramid. Farther east I know is the playa. Then it's the cascades.

But my mind is elsewhere.

I'm thinking about Saturday. Santacon. I look at the pictures. I see things I missed. I was behind the scenes a lot this year. I feel like I missed out. At least I did the mosh pit. That was a sight, Santa Punk Band, Santa Mosh Pit. And the teenage punk Heather couldn't hold back. I jumped right in. I didn't stop the person lighting fire on the dancefloor. I just thought, damn, we're going to get kicked out.

I take a lot of shit for that event. Fucking anti-authority trolls. It used to irritate me. Now, it's a badge of honor.  They don't get it. I accept them into my integral paradigm. Raging against me as an authority figure is a fucking joke. These are my misfit children. They have to hate me.

Who was it that inspired this in me? Easy answer: Patron Saint Cacophony: Michael Mikel aka Danger Ranger. 

I am one of his 10 to the 9. 

10 to the 9 is a phrase Singularity University uses to talk about impacting 1 billion people. That sounds like a daunting task, but it's not really.You have to impact 10 people, who each impact 10 more people out to 9 exponential powers.

I'm thinking about the many emails I get each year; thinking about the photos (and experiences I personally missed) this year. I'm wondering if the guy sitting next to me was there wearing a Santa suit. Then I wonder if the flight attendant was. I imagine my fear of public speaking melting away as I imagine my audience wearing a variety of Santa suits. I remember my late night conversations in Boardners. The creativity people expressed in their holiday costumes.

And here it is. One of my own 10 to the 9s.

I don't even know who I impersonally impacted. And many don't even know it's me holding this moving temporary autonomous zone for Santa's Cacophony. And that's ok. Because I know by the mere fact of it existing - me helping it exist - the world has changed.

The Tarot Drome

A dank london tunnel. Moisture and crumbling stone walls. A Luchadore wrestling ring. I felt right at home.

The Mistress of Ceremonies enters the ring. Two cards are displayed. My throat chokes. Hot tears run down my cheeks. It's my situation exactly. (What I have started to refer as "Hogtied across the Atlantic"). She had me at Jodorosky. 

I find myself in a dream. I'm experiencing these things I am desperate to experience - the experiences I create for others - I'm in it now. It's not Alice in Wonderland - it's a segment of the Holy Mountain. I'm delighted, inspired, fully conscious in the moment.

I learn from the embodied cards. Ephiphanies. Understanding. Richer than I could have dreamed. Ending in a spectacle on roller skates.  This was exactly where I was suposed to be. This was exactly what I was suppose to experience. I leave the experience changed.

Zone Trip

What is a Zone Trip?

We stopped and got out of our vehicles. Michael took a stick out of his car and walked along, marking a long, straight line on the playa floor. This was an old Cacophony tradition of entry into an unknown territory. When the line was long enough to accommodate everyone, eighty-nine people joined hands, and as one, stepped across the line and into The Zone.  (source - scroll all the way down)

It is the entrance into a different world. An alternate reality. One that diverges from this one, in minute, yet instrumental ways.

It is also know as a Temporary Autonomous Zone, as defined by Hakim Bey.  (read the book)

Retrospective 2010: the year I ran out of time/did too much

A LOT happened for me in 2010.  Looking back in retrospect, it was a year I did too much - and my nerves really frayed. (One thing I learned about nerve fraying situations - if you have a team that you trust, that works together and believes in you/each other, things DO work out.)

• Started my advance degree in Strategic Foresight. Gave up my weekends and social life for studying, research and writing papers. The work paid off as I got A's.
• Became absolutely crazy working full-time at financially constrained, geographically dispersed startup. Course, I did take on Eng Mgr roles and 8 product release - including (depressingly enough) some of my best work that will never see the light of day.
• Broke radio silence on my thoughts about identity co-creation and technology at H+.
• Became surprisingly obsessed with what started as a flippant research exercise and turned into The Future of Transactions report (forthcoming).
• Published my dusty manuscript, How to Get Your Heart's Desire in Six Steps - and showed it off at the WeHo Book Fair (in 110+ degree heat). Also built and launched this website in a weekend.
• Revised and launched Purple Tornado's fun website. (Course, now I want to redesign the thing over again.)
• Did more than dip my toe in the futurist water by attending the yearly APF gathering, twitter chats and completing a Certificate in Strategic Foresight. 
• Sam and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary, 3 of those with pup.
• I channeled my inner Victor Frankenstein raising the Cacophony Society with several events: Brides of March, Caveman Picnic,  Xmas in July, the Zombie Marathon Stop and Santacon - which was the largest, most headachey and memorable one.

Moving into 2011, I am holding the concept of "Relaxed Awesome."

Hbombtastic Events

I can't stop myself. I am compelled to create these spaces, these experiences. I hope you'll join me if you are into these same things.

• June 7: Ignite 3 in Los Angeles
• June 12-13: Humanity Plus Summit (ps. I'm speaking!)
• June 15: Geek Dinner REDUX @ Canters
• July 24: Save the Date for Xmas in July

********************************************

Ignite3

When: June 7, 7:30pm
Where: V Lounge (2020 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90403-5608)
What: 5 Minutes. 20 Slides. 15 Seconds per Slide.
Cost: Free
RSVP & Details

Speakers get only 5 minutes to give an amazing, inspiring talk. In LA, there are tons of different communities at the intersection of tech, academia, art, green/sustainability, entertainment, unique lifestyle design, entrepreneurship, digital/collaborative media, and social action that don't know each other but should. Think of Ignite as a set of trailers for exciting projects people are doing that you should know about.

LA Geek Dinner REDUX

The LA Geek Dinner returns for one night.

When: Tuesday, June 15, 2010, starting around 7:30pm
Where: Canters Deli, Mid-Town on Fairfax near Melrose
What: People who self-identify as geeks
Details

How does it work: Show up, order a drink, some food, be open and friendly, meet some new people, have some interesting conversations, eat some pastrami. It’s a chill scene. No uber networking, self-promotion or company promotion. Just be cool. We’re all friends you haven’t met yet. RSVP on our old friend Upcoming

XMAS in JULY: Santa Needs A Vacation

Save the date for Xmas in July: July 24th. Suggestion: Santa like red bikini's! Planning meeting soon.

The Caveman Picnic: Saturday May 8th

A couple years ago, when I was dressed as Santa and slightly inebriated at a bar in Silverlake, I was reminiscing how awesome the LA Brea Tar Pits were as an Icon of Los Angeles. And I wanted to throw an event there. But what would be the perfect event at bubbling vats of tar in the middle of LA? Why, a Caveman Picnic! Two years later, I'm finally getting around to organizing it. After careful consideration, I decided to move the picnic from the tar pits, to the Old Zoo in Griffith Park - which has actual "cave" enclosures which look straight out of a caveman film set. It's very cool.

So I invite you to come on out to the 1st Annual Caveman Picnic in Griffith Park this Saturday.

Noonish until 4 or so.

How to get to the old zoo picnic area? Park in either:
- Lot 2 for the Carousel
- Old Zoo Picnic area

Then walk a short while up the path to an open green with picnic tables and old zoo enclosures. I will try to put up signs in the old zoo picnic area.

I will have signs posted around the Old Zoo/Carousel 2 parking lot.

This is a BYO Everything/Pot-luck:
You may want to bring

• a folding chair,
• extra cups,
• ice,
• sangria,
• plates,
• trash bags,
• a blanket,
• hula-hoops,
• instruments,
• games,
• big foam clubs,
• extra caveman attire.

Unfortunately there are no BBQ grills allowed where we are picnicking.

If you have extra caveman attire, games, clubs, animal costume heads, a mammoth, etc, bring them.
Activities may include: club fights, hiking, riding the carousel, galavanting, scavenger hunt, mammoth hunt, etc. 

Prepare to take a trip back in time: pre-history Los Angeles, where Giant Sloths and Mammoth's better watch where they step otherwise they'll end up on display in a museum hundreds of years in the future.

Introducing the first annual Caveman Picnic. Wear your caveman or cavewoman finest and join us at the Griffith Park Old Zoo for an afternoon of froliking about caveman style. Roll out your fur blankets and bring that bucket of KFC. We'll reinvent the wheel and play some caveman games.

BYO Everything. Be discrete about your beverages.
No Stoves, BBQs, fire where we are picnicing

You can RSVP on Facebook if you are so inclined.

Great Art

"They’re accessible and subversive at the same time. If that isn’t the definition of great art, what is?" (source)

YES!!! Accessible and subversive. Open and Closed. Displaying both sides of the coin, along with the coin, and the limitations of a coin. Opening the art to outsiders to experience and express it their own way. To make what is not theirs, theirs and thusly important.

March Cacophonista

People participate in cacophony-esque events for a variety of reasons. I do it because I like the absurd, interrupting the normal and because life is a stage. Here are some events you can participate in this weekend:

Los Angeles's Impov Everywhere Group
(facebook event link) (@glaimprov)

When: 12pm (noon), Saturday, March 20th, 2010
Meeting Point: Sunset/Vermont Metro station for the briefing. When you arrive, please check-in with us. There will be signs at the station showing you where to check- in.

Bring: Classy Party Attire. Party favors and party hats, but nothing that leaves a mess.

LA Bunnyhop
(facebook event link) (@labunnyhop)

Starts Saturday at Noon at Vermont and Sunset (joining the Countdown)
It's been five years since the last LA Bunny Hop... It's time again. I got a wild hare and decided to gather all you down bunnies for a day of bar-hopping good times... by metro of course. Keep your ears up for more updates.

1. Dress for the occasion. (Bunnies!)
2. Prepare for an easter egg hunt. Bring goodies or something to carry goodies.
3. Follow the LA Bunny Hop on twitter. Stick with your bunnies, but the "schedule" is open to liberal interpretation.
4. Invite all the bunnies you know.

LA Marathon Zombie Stop
(facebook event link) (@heathervescent)

Sponsored in part by Zombies without Borders, the LA Marathon goes through Hollywood and let's make it weird! The LA Marathon is Sunday. Why is everyone running? Zombies of Course! We are the zombies.

--->March 21: Sunday: LA Marathon Zombie Run: 10:30am~2 Mile 12: Gardner &Sunset in West Hollywood Bring cocktails, twinkies, beer, lounge chairs, wear zombie attire

RSVP privately for complimentary zombie makeup time/location nearby. This is an official LA Cacophony Event. Support your local Cacophonistas and be one yourself.