V. Love and Laughter out West

Writing this from the Kearney Mesa Volkswagen dealership in San Diego as Tuomas buys a car.

On Monday I am flying to Tokyo, visiting Dairik (Tea Master) in Kyoto, then Taipei where I await my friends. If you or anyone you know is in Tokyo/Taipei, I would love to meet them!

I have stayed for the past two months with generous friends in San Francisco. Pitching tents in a San Luis Obispo parking lot (in between the RVs), slightly out of time with my left hand piano walking bass, reading the 10K of an aluminum supply chain company.

Oddly not in the mood for writing, so I will mostly use pictures.

I made some art

Like, the kind you touch with your hands

Some art I took part in creating (s/o OT)

Proudest of my hand-designed poster for the Q&A session

Uploaded a conversation some friends and I had in Montreal with Dairik Amae, a Tea Master, about the nature of meditative practice, fishing, and why you should burn down Japanese temples. (audio, transcript)

Created a low quality 40 min lecture reviewing basic linear algebra— Speedrunning Linear Algebra: A Geometric Perspective.

Upcoming conversation: Tuomas and I talk about our initial love for and ultimate disappointment with decision theory. (Stay tuned)

Music makes me marvel

In the countryside of Austria, I made my Jazz trio debut…

One practice take

Co-wrote two songs (still mixing) and have snippets for a couple more.

Oh yeah Burning Man was disturbingly good

I’ve never been so inspired by art. There was literally too much to see.

Someone was riding a Giant mechatronic bunny through the desert

Day 7 waking up caked in alkali dust. Perry is about to hose me off.

My favorite desert exhibition: face your fear beast (cred. Micah Epstein)

Me and 6 media lab grad students ran a social science experiment using Will-o-wisp fire spirits, embodied in this tin

Me on duty giving out will-o-wisps

Desert outline (cred. micah)

The Burn (cred. micah)

Can’t quite articulate how Burning Man changed my brain. Something to do with the importance of ritual creation and participation, love of music and art, deep trust in my response to life unfurling, wisdom is remaining at ease in the face of chaos, lust as beautiful/source of inspiration/necessity for compassion

Love friends

USA, Brazil, USA, Canada, UK, Austria, Germany
> USA (San Diego)
Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto)
Taiwan (Taipei)
New Zealand (Auckland)
USA (Boston ?)