http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R_CiADamJU
This is a show we just played a few nights ago on a farm in Rochester, WA. We play here every year with all our friends from K records! It is our new song, "Roger MIller". Enjoy!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Blissed out
I love LAKE summers. For the last four years we've played What the Heck Fest in Anacortes, WA, and Helsing Junction Sleepover, a K records farm festival. This year I had to leave Helsing early, which was heart-breaking for a number of reasons. One, Karl Blau played and I missed it. Two, I missed the group photo. Three, well that's a secret...
I want LAKE and other music projects to be my main priority in life. I've pretty much declared "Screw everything except music and friendship". That's an over-simplification, I know, but I like it.
I've decided I'm done working at my job, done living to work, working to live, etc. It's stressful and unsatisfying. I mean, what is life for? To make money for someone else? No way. So, after a lot of thought about what's important to me and what I want in life, after pouring my heart out over gmail to my bandmates, after opening myself up to life and adventure, I've allowed for some things to enter that I could have never foreseen.
Last week I took a trip up to Whidbey Island, which is a San Juan island where Eli and Ashley live. I've been thinking of moving there in order to be closer to the band. Well, Ashley got this idea that I should go take a look at the "Dead Goat Road" property.
Dead Goat is owned my Ashley's hippie, environmental-activist bosses, Marion and Steve. It is where they built their first house and raised their child. It is in a densely forested valley called Frosty Holler. The house has fallen to ruin. Every inch of land is covered in invasive plants like stinging nettles and blackberry bushes. They will never live there again, but they will never sell it, either, because if they did, developers would cut down all the beautiful trees. And it holds a lot of sentimental value for Marion. Up until recently, a man was living out there, watching over the land. But he died, so they're looking for someone else to live out there. Ashley thought I might like to do it.
Now, there is no power or water out there. It's true off-the-grid living. Roughin' it to the extreme. I was hesitant, but curious. So Marion offered to take us there. I suggested that Ashley and I bring our camping gear and spend the night out there to get a feeling for the land at night, because if I'm going to be living in the middle of the woods alone with no electricity, I better make sure I can handle being out there. So we didn't invite any men, or anyone else. I didn't want any false sense of security. I mean, even having Ashley there provided me with a little of that, but I couldn't do it alone.
We spent a few hours walking around with Marion and chatted about my fixing it up to live for free. We were all really excited. I mean, the place is a total wreck. It's overwhelming the amount of work I will need to do. But the thing is, it's possible that if I spent the next several years living there and watching over the property, maintaining it, I could end up inheriting it. Of course I can't plan on that, but it's a possibility.
We hung tea-candle lanterns in the trees. We read out loud, played guitar, talked about how spooky it was and how vulnerable we felt, but how it was cool to feel that way. The bottle of wine we shared helped a lot. I wasn't as scared as I thought I would be. No X-files episodes haunted me or anything like that.
Basically the plan is this: I will leave Portland, my house and job, to go on tour. When I get back from tour around Thanksgiving, I will move in with Marion and Steve, who have a whole level of their house free. They live around the corner from Dead Goat, so I will go there during the days this winter and work on the property and the house. I also got a job in Langley, the town where Ash and Eli live. It's at a coffee roasting company. I'll be working in the cafe on the espresso machine. They heard that I work for Stumptown and were like "You're hired, just tell us when you want to start". My experience doubles that of their senior barista. Now all I need is a pickup truck, and to schedule some work parties on the land.
Oh! And my friend Carson is going to work on it with me and live out there, too. And possibly others. My dream of an off-the-grid hippy commune is coming to life! It is a lifelong dream of mine!
Anyway, I've just got to take a nap.
I want LAKE and other music projects to be my main priority in life. I've pretty much declared "Screw everything except music and friendship". That's an over-simplification, I know, but I like it.
I've decided I'm done working at my job, done living to work, working to live, etc. It's stressful and unsatisfying. I mean, what is life for? To make money for someone else? No way. So, after a lot of thought about what's important to me and what I want in life, after pouring my heart out over gmail to my bandmates, after opening myself up to life and adventure, I've allowed for some things to enter that I could have never foreseen.
Last week I took a trip up to Whidbey Island, which is a San Juan island where Eli and Ashley live. I've been thinking of moving there in order to be closer to the band. Well, Ashley got this idea that I should go take a look at the "Dead Goat Road" property.
Dead Goat is owned my Ashley's hippie, environmental-activist bosses, Marion and Steve. It is where they built their first house and raised their child. It is in a densely forested valley called Frosty Holler. The house has fallen to ruin. Every inch of land is covered in invasive plants like stinging nettles and blackberry bushes. They will never live there again, but they will never sell it, either, because if they did, developers would cut down all the beautiful trees. And it holds a lot of sentimental value for Marion. Up until recently, a man was living out there, watching over the land. But he died, so they're looking for someone else to live out there. Ashley thought I might like to do it.
Now, there is no power or water out there. It's true off-the-grid living. Roughin' it to the extreme. I was hesitant, but curious. So Marion offered to take us there. I suggested that Ashley and I bring our camping gear and spend the night out there to get a feeling for the land at night, because if I'm going to be living in the middle of the woods alone with no electricity, I better make sure I can handle being out there. So we didn't invite any men, or anyone else. I didn't want any false sense of security. I mean, even having Ashley there provided me with a little of that, but I couldn't do it alone.
We spent a few hours walking around with Marion and chatted about my fixing it up to live for free. We were all really excited. I mean, the place is a total wreck. It's overwhelming the amount of work I will need to do. But the thing is, it's possible that if I spent the next several years living there and watching over the property, maintaining it, I could end up inheriting it. Of course I can't plan on that, but it's a possibility.
We hung tea-candle lanterns in the trees. We read out loud, played guitar, talked about how spooky it was and how vulnerable we felt, but how it was cool to feel that way. The bottle of wine we shared helped a lot. I wasn't as scared as I thought I would be. No X-files episodes haunted me or anything like that.
Basically the plan is this: I will leave Portland, my house and job, to go on tour. When I get back from tour around Thanksgiving, I will move in with Marion and Steve, who have a whole level of their house free. They live around the corner from Dead Goat, so I will go there during the days this winter and work on the property and the house. I also got a job in Langley, the town where Ash and Eli live. It's at a coffee roasting company. I'll be working in the cafe on the espresso machine. They heard that I work for Stumptown and were like "You're hired, just tell us when you want to start". My experience doubles that of their senior barista. Now all I need is a pickup truck, and to schedule some work parties on the land.
Oh! And my friend Carson is going to work on it with me and live out there, too. And possibly others. My dream of an off-the-grid hippy commune is coming to life! It is a lifelong dream of mine!
Anyway, I've just got to take a nap.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
