Motion Notion

Well, it’s taken a while, but I finally have a few minutes to write.

I looked at the few photos I took while we were at Motion Notion and I’m sad to say that most of them are blurry or not too interesting. I was too busy having a good time to remember the camera, so unfortunately I only have a few photos from Saturday afternoon of the main stage and our campsite…doesn’t even begin to do it justice I’m afraid. But it’s all in my head, so I’ll just pull it out for you…

It’s been 3 years now since we heard about Motion Notion through our friend Ken and we went the first year not knowing what to expect and were totally overwhelmed. It has gotten better every year as a festival and we’ve had a better time each year, not imagining it to be possible until it happened. There is so much to say about it – the campsite is beautiful. It is set down in a valley next to a river, with lots of trees and grass and a farmer’s field of canola nearby, which this year was actually seeded with grass for people to tent on making for more space to spread out in. There is a large main stage in the centre of the valley and two smaller buildings, one for a “chill out area” with more ambient music and another area for a second small stage. There was even an interactive tent where everything you touched made a sound or triggered lights. The main stage always has fantastic abstract and bizarre art, some of it black light reactive (this year there was a huge 25foot long blacklight painted dragon suspended over the dance area!) with an absolutely top notch sound system…you know the kind you can stand right in front of and feel the base pulse through you and never have a sore ear afterwards – crystal clear sound. This year the festival outdid itself, as a group of people who’ve gone every year (calling themselves Fort Jag (i.e. Jagermeister)) built a second main stage for the event – full out stage and area with a complete light and sound system. And so there were two full main stages. Hooray. There was also a insanely bright laser spotlight thingy pointing up in the centre of the field. The nifty thing is that if you weren’t into the style of music at one stage you could just wander to another…or another…or over to an area with the food vendors and just relax…or swim in the river or hike in the woods...or go back to the tent or find a communal bonfire and meet new people.
That’s the other thing that makes Motion Notion so fantastic – the people. I’m used to large music festivals being full of loud drunken jerks fighting, stealing and ogling women. None of that here. At all. Zip. I’ve yet to encounter a rude or angry person, and everyone was friendly. Maybe it was the hippie quotient, but you could walk up to total strangers and have conversations, and complete strangers would come up and share food with you or just hang out and enjoy the sun or the fire. No fighting and no weirdness, just everyone respecting each other and having a great time. It was common to be sitting by a fire and see someone hear a tune or a style of music and see their eyes light up and they’d say “gotta go!” and run off and listen or dance. I know I did it more than a few times! I mean how often do you hear a techno remix of the Imperial March…you have to go and dance to that!
And the music. Oh the music. All manner of music – psytrance, funk, breaks, house, techno, drum and bass and even reggae and ambient depending on the time and place. J and I could wander and listen to what we liked. He’s more of a breaks guy and I’m more partial to the techno and trance stuff so we could wander and meet up every once in a while if we wanted to see different things. So many times we’d be so tired and think “oh let’s go sit for a while” and as we walked away the music would call us back: we’d hear bits of things we’d like: Adam Freeland, Prodigy, Fat Boy Slim, Bjork, Theivery Corporation, and so many other familiar things mixed in with so much new music…and it just kept playing!
This year we had the good fortune to camp in with the GOMP crew who were running one of the smaller stages (lots of funk, techno, chill out and reggae) as our friend Ken has been doing some work with them. We really got more of the community feel this year. Everyone was very welcoming and I met a lot of great new people. I’m pretty shy and I was able to just sit back and watch people, talk when I felt comfortable and just relax. Everyone was themselves and very happy to be that way. 3000 people all like that...it makes for a fantastic atmosphere. A lot of people wore costumes at night and over the weekend I met the Mario Brothers, a jedi, a few fairies, firedancers, stilt walkers and a grim reaper (who stood in the field occasionally and slowly nodded or waved at people as they walked by - my friend Ben ran up and hugged him). The best costume I saw was a guy who had shaved his head and glued pieces of bevelled glass to his head, wearing an outfit with pieces of glass in srategic places all over it - he was like a giant huge grinning mirrorball. There was even a Ghostbuster apparently, but I missed him. J brought his jedi robe I made for him a while back (a bonus when it was cold!) and on a few occasions he could be seen in the woods swinging the lightsaber around. I even mooched it for a brief quest through a campsite or two. (The look on someone's face when you skulk into their camping area wielding a lightsaber is really priceless!) I wore a few of my UV reactive masks and gave a few away. I also had a blast going around the last morning giving away about 5 dozen granola bars and meeting and saying goodbye to so many nice people. I came home with many gifts given to me from random nice people.
As a bonus, no mosquitoes and very little rain this year. Oh yes, it was a good time. It got very cold at night (I will bring long johns and wooly socks next year), but the view of the mist off the river in the mornings was beautiful. I’m kicking myself that I have no photos. I’m hoping others I know will have a few to send me – if they do I’ll post a few.
Well, I could go on and on, but I just would sound like a babbling fool I expect. I probably already do. Let’s just say we had such a great time that we got ourselves tickets to go to Shambhala music festival in August. It’s apparently even better (I can’t imagine) and about 8500 people in a ranch in Salmo BC, with 6 stages of music over 4 days…our tickets arrived in the mail last night. I can’t wait. There’ll be just enough time for me to make a silly amount of food before we’re off in the second week of August.
Here we go again…

The old switcheroo

Well I must say: Up until this morning, when I've begun to feel quite alright actually, I've felt quite exhausted and queasy since getting back from holidays...I seem to need a holiday after I go on holidays as I cram in too much while I'm away.
J was truly inpired while we were off and he's been zipping about life the past week with a spring in his step and a glimmer in his eyes. It is wonderful. He's so inpired to get back to working on music with his software program and has concluded something I've firmly believed in for years - life is what you make of it. You create your reality and if you are unhappy, then you find something, even if it is just one thing, that brings you joy and do it with a happy heart. It is so wonderful to see him so inspired.
I on the other hand, while happy and content, have felt awful, and almost like a wet blanket over the past few days. It's like J and I have switched and he's the insanely happy one for a change...
But I am happy to say that I am starting to feel like my old self again. I'm not queasy today, I slept a bunch and I have an optomistic spring in my step today. My brother is coming to visit next weekend (he may have a job here and be moving back-very cool) and J finds out today if he got the job he interviewed for before we left (it seems very positive). Things seem to be on the upside right now. And so, I'm on the mend.
Life is what you make it.
Have a good one.

Geosomin returned to her typing and dreamed her little dreamy dreams

So the night I left for the festival I had the neatest dream. It was very vivid and I can picture it even now. Everyone I've mentioned it to said it was kind of creepy. I didn't see it that way...I found it very inspiring. I still do.

I dreamt I was hiking through a woody path at sunset, with the sky all purple and red. I remember hearing dragonflies and a squirrel chattering. Up ahead, a few small girls (aged 6 or 7) ran up the trail ahead of me. They had shoulder length blond hair with flowers in it, and wore long light blue dresses. One of them turned and ran up to me, giggled and said “Come dance with us Heather! Dance with us!”...and when she looked up at me I could see she was a cyclops. Her face beamed happiness, and she smiled like all sweet little girls do when they're having a wonderful day.
I paused a bit and stared at her face and then asked her how she could see (as typically cyclops’s are blind as their eye doesn’t function) and she said “Oh don’t worry, I can see everything. It's wonderful." She took my hand and said"Oh, please come dance with us. Dance with us!”
Then they both turned and waved and ran giggling off into the bushes ahead of me.
I remember thinking “all righty then…” and then I woke up right before my alarm.

I took it as a sign that the weekend would be a good one and I was meant to dance in the woods.
And it was.
And I did.
But, more on that later. Lots to do…

She’s packing it up, and sneaking away, and buggering off…

Well…I’m off.
Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
See ya in a week.


“The intent behind Motion Notion is to help people become more in touch with the earth and themselves by experiencing mind-expanding music and art in a very natural environment. Motions in dance, progressions in our lives, and the flux of the universe are all related. The notion is that movement is existence and that we can find clarity by understanding change and movement. It’s about the infinite. We seek the answers to life's biggest questions.”

“One sacred rhythm beats within all people and throughout the universe as a whole. This primal pulse is what I endeavor to understand and why there is a Motion Notion”
James Katalyst, event founder
(from the MN website)

What I need

At a prompting I found on Diddums blog I tried typing in "my name needs" (well not "my name" but my name...you know, my actual name...you see...oh you get the idea...) in to Google and did a search to let it tell me what I need.
Apparentnly, the first 10 things that I need are (in no particular order, capitals emphasis and italics all a la Google):

-I Need Men...Now!
-I need to go rambling
-I need two therapists
-I need to start wearing a brassiere (I'd like to clarify that I already do)
-I need a childhood
-I need VEGGIES!
-I need to jump out them blue jeans and show you my butt (not gonna happen)
-I need to acquire data from the client, understand the client's needs & report these needs to the solution designer
-I need to stick with my career as a country artist
-I need to access information ubiquitously to provide answers


As for J, well:
-J needs a home where he is the only child or the other siblings are male
-J needs snow
-J needs redemption
-J needs to "get on with his sh*t"
-Jay needs to sharpen his sarcasm
-J needs a redname
-J needs new shades
-J needs a rookie challenge
-J needs to approach music with an open mind


Who knew?

Happy thoughts required

J just found out his job interview was moved to today at 2.
Please send all your happy thoughts his way...

Hmmm…I just don’t think there will be enough food

I am tired. A jug of iced tea fell on my head yesterday (long story) so I couldn't get to sleep because my head hurt. But, it was a busy and productive night.
For our trip over the past few days I’ve made the following:

-12 dozen cookies
-12 tofu corn dogs
-a big container of tabouli
-72 granola bars
-10 scotch eggs
-2 dozen pumpkin muffins
-2 dozen cheese bacon biscuits (I call them “cram”)
-red pepper hummus and some pitas (OK I bought the pitas)
-we also have cheerios and soy milk, pudding and fruit

I’ve used up all my flour and had to go to the store multiple times for eggs and brown sugar. There will be many people there and I plan to share cookies and granola bars with lots of them. Plus, many of our friends that we will be meeting there are guys who haven’t had “real” cooking for a while, so I made extra so I wouldn’t be all snarky and and can share freely. You never know if there will be a fire ban on, so I planned our food to be OK cold that can be shoved on a stick over the fire to warm it up if we want to. And if there’s leftovers (..if? >:) ) that’s just fine with me.

I also made 3 bikini tops to wear while there and a few masks for if there is a costume event. J made his lightsaber fully equipped with a superbright LED light inside…he hee - flashlights are for paduans!

I can’t wait. I’m so excited! We leave tomorrow morning…AND after we’re staying in the Polynesian room at West Ed Monday night (they have a theme room sale on). The picture on the website has a waterfall into the hot tub and tacky wall paintings and mirrors all over the place AND we get free passes to the waterpark. Tacky tacky! Joy joy!

A holiday indeed! Mee hee…

Word o' the day

A man I saw biking in a skin tight black suit this morning (like the germans on the Big Labowski with the giant scissors - speedo short cut legs no less!) inspired my word of the day that I've been saying all day and giggling uncontrollably afterwards.

Wait for it...

Unitard

*snicker*
OK, Resume your lives.

Blah blah blah meme blah blah blah.

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to be on holidays but wasn't yet. She sat and thought as she worked about all she would do and what was left to be done before she left. Then she sighed and filled out a meme before getting back at her work...

Current attire: painful shoes (I have blisters on my little toes), jean skirt, black tank and blue dress shirt with a necklace and black specs.
Current mood: Tired and a bit mopy.
Current music: "Porcelain" by Moby
Current annoyance: That when money is tight and I'm stressed about it things always break down...the dryer, my hair dryer, our dishwasher is acting up. Yet when things are good and no worries everything runs fine. Why is that?
Current thing: Making food for camping. I believe I've gone crazy with it but it'll be yummy.
Current Song in my head: Jam for the Ladies by Moby
Current video in player: my exercise ball tape
Current DVD in player: Six Feet Under season 2 disc 3.
Current refreshment: water and coffee.
Current worry: Will Jay get the job he's applied for and has an interview for when we get back? I hope so...I really do. Really. I do.
Current thought: How is it that you can look into the face of someone you've know for years and not recognise them? Can people change that much? Or is it the looker that has changed?

Songs that make me happy:
Everloving by Moby
Go by Lemon Jelly
Hey Boy Hey Girl by the Chemical Brothers

Things that make me happy:
Cheese
Sunshine on the river
Waking up to my husband smiling at me as I sleep

Three things I'm thankful for:
J
my job
that I have people who love me...and that I don't have to do everything myself.

doop de doop de doop...de doop....doop.

We just got a Dave Tipper audio DVD (surrounded). We've only heard him spin live breaks (at last year's Motion Notion) but he apparently does lots of ambient music. I likes me ambient music so we tracked down one of his DVDs and had a listen last night.
Veddy good stuff.
I do wish there was a way for audio DVDs to just turn off like a CD when they're done and not go back to the menu, which only has about 1 minute of looped audio. Eventually no matter how comfy you and your love may be veggin in a giant bean bag chair you have to get up and make the music loops stop!
I took a bit of a break from operation camp prep last night to relax with J and actually not cook anything or do much of anything (other than somehow break the clothes dryer...sigh). Tonight is the last night of foody prep and then gathering all our stuff into a giant pile for insertion into our little car...I managed to cause my hair dryer to self distruct this morning and now I'm scared to touch any electronics or machinery in case the whole "three times a charm" thing applies to me breaking stuff...maybe I'll just sit here and hum all day.

Hmmmm hmmmm hmmh hmmm hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

Hotel

Hotels puzzle me. They are a getaway, a necessity and a luxury all in one. They are designed to be bland and pleasant to everyone, and yet some people live in them as they travel or work (I wonder, after a time does it make them bland and pleasant to everyone?). Some (like my Mom) will actually unpack their suitcases and "live" in them. Sometimes they are a small room to sleep in, cheap, but clean on your way *to* somewhere else. Others times they can be a destination for people (like me) who go for the hot tub themey jobs (one room I recall even had mirrors on the ceilings...) and have an over the top time. I figure if I'm going to stay in a hotel I'll make the best of it. And yet, a hotel that popped into my mind at the hotel prompt was not a themey or exotic one, but a little hotel we stayed in when we went to Europe.

For example, when I think of our trip to England I'll always remember the hotel we stayed in the first and last nights. We were visiting family in Whitby the other nights, but after arriving from the airport whilst driving our rental peanut car on the insanely huge freeways and into London after being awake for 32 hours, the hotel was a very pleasant sight to see.
The Alexander hotel...right near Paddington Station. I'm smiling just thinking about it. Nothing fancy, but near the subway so we could get around. As soon as we arrived we checked in and went up some windy stairs to our lovely little room with windows overlooking the road. We were too excited to sleep so we went rambling around London, through Hyde Park, past Big Ben and Trafalger Square and the palace. Then when we realized that if we didn't head back soon we might just expire right there on the path, we got some curry takeaway and went back to our little hotel room. It was windy and rainy and we cracked the windows, listened to the wind and the city and ate our curry sitting crosslegged on the floor...somehow it was perfection. We sat and gazed out the window from the bed and eventually fell asleep. We crawled out of bed the next morning after watching a truly confusing morning children's show and bumbled down to the breakfast room to have toast, cereal and coffee, before packing up and setting off to Oxford and Whitby to begin our quest for Letcombe Regis and J's grandfather's old home. The night before we left we stayed there again and felt just as welcome. After seeing a musical we went to Piccadilly Circus and ran around like idiots in the all night arcade there before stumbling back to sleep a bit and try to get to Heathrow on time.
Although we spent just a little of our time at the hotel, it was a large part of our holiday. I'd love to go back...

Sunday scribblings