the caged red owl i saw in my dream

it's hard not to lose yourself looking off into the Bali Sea at night.  it's a cut of my recently dubbed favorite ocean, the indian ocean, and its calm waves are silenced by the archepelago which hugs it.  the peaceful islands almost make a family around the surrounding seas and in their comfort one can witness an amazing phenomenon at night, bioluminesensce.

the blue magic comes from plankton who shows its face near the tide only when disturbed at night.  there is nothing like it in the world, i almost think i'm dreaming when i see it.  if you stay up late enough you can watch it slowly transforn into the pink morning sky.  i took no photographs, this memory is for me.

i can see it (i can't really see it but i can picture it), the far horizon on borneo just north of me.  it is an island which calls home to three countries and swallows from within itself a deep and ancient people of many tribes, a people painted with tattoos so as not to be forgotten by the gods.

a few nights ago i had a dream about a tiny red owl locked in a cage.  he was frantic and crying, begging in plain english to be left alone.  i wanted to help it and maybe set it free but it was terrified by my hand when i opened the cage.  i felt so bad for it, to see something so helpless and affraid.  i don't know why i had that dream but it haunted me a little.  i cannot say that i still believe there is meaning in dreams but i do feel the emotions that come along with them.  in this dream i felt the same pain i feel everytime i see a caged animal or a poorly treated pet.  it hurts me what we have done to the world and how steadfast we are in our attempts to make in a planet completely owned by man.  even in our people who live among nature we hurt and push into small corners of our nations in which they bear only a glimpse of the natural world they one enjoyed.  maybe that is why i have such dreams, maybe i know that in my travels i pry my own eyes open conciously to the sight of a natural world coming to an end.  it hurts and confuses me.  i never got it.. i never really fit in here anyway and maybe that's why i take comfort in the ways of the old.

now i sit watching the magic syrround me wondering about the tiny dot on the horrizon.  i wonder what secrets they hold and what they have left to tell us before the world i come from destroys it completely.

central bali

Kaya

i got to sing one of my favorite songs on stage last night with this beautiful soul

Wake up and turn me loose
Wake up and turn me loose
Wake up and turn me loose
For the rain is falling

Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
For the rain is falling

I'm so high, I even touch the sky
Above the falling rain
I feel so good in my neighbourhood, so
Here I come again

Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
For the rain is falling

Feelin' irie I
Feelin' irie I
Feelin' irie I
'Cause I have some kaya now

I feel so high, I even touch the sky
Above the falling rain
I feel so good in my neighbourhood, so
Here I come again

Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now, Lord
For the rain is falling

Kecak

in uluwatu, bali there is a very unique yet more modern than i realized dance called the kecak.  this involves a large circle of men who repetetively chant a haunting call that sounds something like 'kak kak kak kak kak kak!' and the dance is meant to recreate a battle in which a benevolant prince faught an evil king while being aided by a monkey-like deity. 

the dances are in a noticable trance as their bodies move in harmony with the help of a single man of greatest experience calling off the rhythm.  the moves are precise and almost hauntingly organized as the dancers fall deep into their otherworldly trance.

as the dance is resolved the participants stand and surround a sacred flame in veneration to the monkey-like being and often times there is a single female dancer who (i believe) represents a princess who was taken by the evil king.

the expressions on the dancers faces are unbelievable.  the men carry an almost impish grin and they call their chanting from the sides of their months revealing our most primitive facial features. 

photo from Baraka.. one of my favorite films

seratonin

i slept and i slept
and i knew that all i kept
were the signs and the times
i told everyone im fine
i remember feeling small
feeling nothing at all
understood what was good
like a curious kid should
i always felt small
summertime as a child
told my friends
hide and seek
i never thought they'd find me
prettyboy blues
and the ghosts that walk beside me
fireflies sparkle
first kiss
roller skating
spiders on the ceiling
i recall always hiding
and you cant hide your young times
trying to be first picked
told them i was fine
but i guess they always knew
packed up all my things
into a single bagged dream
ran away from everyone
and everything

Ulundanu Beratan Tabanan - Jatiluwih Tabanan (Bedugul)

i'm stuck in bali (not the worst place in the world to be stuck) waiting for an extension to my visa.  they don't tell you before you come to indonesia but if you stay for over a month you have to find a trusting place to hand over your passport and take a two hour motorbike ride across the island you are on to an immigration office.  it's cool.  chance has placed me in the company of some friends i've made through various places already in my trip; coincidence is really nice when in your favor.

we hired a taxi bus to take us around the northern half of the island through some old temples and rice and coffee plantations.  the scenery is cool but the company i'm in is the nicest treat. 

it's good to be here, off in the world, the place of wonder to those back home.  it's big and beautiful here on this planet and somehow i've been given the chance to walk around on it for a little while.  it's a strange time to be alive when we can dance at our bullshit jobs for a few months, just long enough to buy a ticket on a plane to nowhere.  i like it.  i like being off the record, a dream in between dreams. 

 

i'm looking off into this great sea wondering what is next to come.  a few weeks ago i got to swim with the manta rays, something i never dreamed i would do.  i didn't have a camera, only a pair of eyeballs and an impish childlike smile.  because of my lack of underwater camera i've decided to shamelessly steal a few photos of manta rays from komodo just to give an idea.  however i must say that the photos in my mind's eye are much more playful and vivid.

Ubud

in bali there is an interesting practice of the day called nyepi, which i believe recognized the beginning of the balinese new year.  on this day the people of bali practice a complete day of silence and hide in their houses with the windows closed and the lights out.  it is said that demons walk the earth on this day and they can be fooled to believe the island is still uninhabited should the people remain silent.  

on that note i arrived exactly one day after nyepi only to see the remnants of a parade which celebrates the passing of this sacred time.  ubud is a really spiritual place located in the center of the island of bali and i'm lucky to have landed here.  i made my way by means of a painfully slow ferry which carries automobiles between the indonesian islands.  the island has unfortunately been overrun by tourists and drunkards in the south yet the central region remains pure somehow.  

i'm curious about this religion.  it makes me wonder about how far religions can travel.  hinduism for example has wandered here from india hundreds of years ago and has remained untouched by the coming of islam some six hundred years before.  there are remnants of buddhism everywhere and i can see similar deities to those of northern india/nepal which i've chanced upon a few years ago.  i managed to snap some photos of Ubud in its purity yet i'm still shy at pointed my camera towards locals.  it's kind of rude anyway and because this is such a religious place i don't want to aim my camera inwards towards ancient temples which are still being used today.  the following are the photos i've stolen as a passerby yet my mind's camera remains in brilliant focus as i get the chance to experience such a strange yet colorful culture.

i cannot fight the feeling that this world is ending.  civilization more specifically.  how lucky i am to live in the future (and the future has come) but i do continue to have this looming sensation that the natural world will soon take us back.  hopefully.  hopefully we don't win this war.. i'm a shame to man and a traitor, i can only hope we find a cure for ourselves before we forget how colorful the world can be.  yet i've chosen to become a teacher.  your job is a great responsibility so do it well.  i really hope i'm doing a good job and i hope many more generations can see this world for what it is before it becomes a concrete wasteland overburdened by an unacknowledged desire for personal gain.  cryptic, yet true.  give a hoot, don't pollute...