After lunch with Richard my roomie at the conference hotel who was also a student with me in Sociology at the U of A, who is now a prof at Vandy and who is the first black man to ever graduate from my department, we went back to the hotel room and had some more amazing conversation some of which I will share with you all in another blog, I fell asleep while he worked on his presentation at around 7 PM and I didn't wake up again until 7 AM the next day. Nice! I needed that.

So I got up shit, showered and shaved; obviously a necessary thing if it is in two blogs in a row, headed down to a really nice breakfast. It was an omelete, big ole' waffle and outmeal to be exact. Went to a session where Shawna was presenting and saw my advisor pop in late and had someone point out a discrepency in his big study and Shawna said they found a duplicate. Doh!!!! He might not live that one down for a while.

Sow any how after that session I went and saw Richard present and that was really kick ass too. He presented about people getting "called" to preach and going through a process that is supposed to validate that calling but the process in essence creates in their minds that they were called because of the interactions that they have in the process. Damn good my friends, damn good.

So I was off to to try to have lunch with someone when I ran into this guy named Chris in the elevator who saw my kick ass presentation yesterday. He happened to be from a foundation that funds research, particularly social psychological research about religion and spirituality. Ah haa!!! So I mention to him about the need for funds to move on to the much needed assessment of subjective meaning of spirituality and religion and I invite him to lunch. Well, we go and he ends up knowing Craig who is a new professor in my department who came from UNC where he worked with Christian Smith who just moved to Notre Dame to start this center for spirituality and religion that was just given a grant from the foundation that Chris works for to start a new module for an internation survey. You gettin' it yet. So I show him the rest of my data that I didn't have time to talk about yesterday and he says that I should consider working with Smith to get my stuff about meaning as a pilot module in his new survey and he would help connect me with him. SCORE!!!!

So after lunch we start talking about Burning Man and the idea I have about it as an enclave economy and how that can create a wonderful world for our children that I didn't know he had until we walk into the lobby and meet up with his wife and beautiful daughter. :) So needless to say he turns out to be really interested in staying in touch.

(To be continued)

So I'm sick as a dog with some kinda flu and I am about to get in my car and drive to Phoenix to get on a plane for Portland so I can present a paper about my dissertation research when the maintenance guy comes up to my car and tells me he is going to tow my friend's trailer that he lent me for Burning Man with stuff in the back of it (inhale) and I got about 2 1/2 hours before my plane leaves so I really don't have time for this shit especially when I went to the main office and told the guy that the rules say I can store any registered vehicle in the covered parking spot that comes with being an owner of the condo that I have (inhale) and he said he would hold off on towing but obviously he isn't so I now have to hook up the trailer to my car and take it with me to Phoenix.

So after about 40 minutes I am finally on the road and the car is a lot slower now and I still have to get gas. What sucks is that I was going to go see my boy Mark's brother Mike, who is the guitarist in Lotus play along with Umphrey's McGee, one of the bands my good friend Rob introduced me to, at the Roseland Theatre that night. Well the trailer made the trip longer (obviously heavier) and I missed my flight because I couldn't park the car in parking with the trailer and had to get somebody to meet me to get my car; thank you Wink for coming and picking up the CRV and the trailer so I could get on the plane that got me there late enough so I couldn't see the concert and too late to get into my hostel that closed the front desk at eleven so I ended up staying up all night in a coffee shop working on my presentation that had to be presented at what I thought was 8:30 AM. Whew!!

So, needless to say I was looking real ragidy about 8 AM so I got to the conference hotel and changed in the bathroom, shit, showered and shaved and took the crystal that alienacean's" mom gave me; thanks to Nitya who got it to me before I had the ordeal in the parking lot with the maintenance guy and went to my presentation.

Damn, it was bad ass!!! I have gotten so many compliments and people think that my work is cutting age. Thank me M C, you know who you are, for making your ass look good at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

(To be continued)

So on Friday I took off with my fellow Aphrodite to this wonderful plot of land that's about 30 or so miles outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. Two of the AZ Burners own it. It's where the AZ Decompression is held every year. This was my first year going and I am really glad I did. I was getting a bit frustrated the days and hours before I left because I was trying to do too much for every body else. I was trying to make sure the "PleasureDome," the art installation slash chill out spot I conceived for Burning Man this year would be available as well as this smaller installation called "The Room" that I had also conceived but couldn't get ready for BRC.

But it wasn't just me. That day Aphrodite was having to deal with her relationship issues as well and it was all getting bothersome. I was feeling over excerted and agitated so I decided to leave a lot behind and just go for me. So I left the trailer with the "PleasureDome" and only took my tent and the stuff for "The Room."

I also am glad I did that. I had a blast! I was just talking with my brother, with whom I hadn't really connected with in several years on the day before and he really made a point to me about not trying to do so much for others but think about myself. I was also going through some worrying about my bodly health too and he pointed out how healthy I am in relation to him and why that is; because I have taken such good care or myself.

I need to keep that up for sure! The one issue that comes along with this "taking care of yourself," is the fine line of being concerned only about yourself from a place of ego. But the key here is balance. I have to be concerned about others but I can no longer put that concern for others before my health or well being. I did a lot of that this summer and I learned that what comes out of that is you end up being hurt in some way shape or form. Not helping to prevent your hurt is quite alright. Doesn't mean that I don't love a person or don't have a genuine desire to help them. It sometimes just comes down to the cost vs. benefit in the long run.

Well it seems like I am feeling a bit better as I sit here in San Francisco and watch ths sun heading toward the horizon.

HAPPY!!

Damn my body has been yelling at me lately so I started to listen. Yeap, no doubt i'm getting older so I better take head. I can't just sit around and not exercise because there is such a thing as atrophy. No not a trophy even though my body is telling me I need one of those too. The wife kind I guess. But I am talking about exercise. Now that I am going to really be back in the labor force as a professional; either as a professor or something else, I need to get my act togethor and be active. So I started working out again on monday and then I ran today and now my body is yelling at me because it hurts. Damn boy! What is it? Exercise or no! Make up your damn mind. LOL!

So I got back from Burning Man to find my house full of stuff from four other people. There was stuff from my friend Jeff, who was leaving for Wisconsin after we returned from the burn, Nitya, who served as my Aphrodite at the burn and Hans, who was also at the burn. But my new roommate, Matt, also moved in while we were at the burn. So needless to say my house was piled to the hilt with crap. Today, I am finally at the point where I feel comfortable with the way the place looks again even though I still have a lot of papers to go through. I was trying to sell the condo at one time but I took it off the market just before the burn. Even though that is the case, I keep getting more and more calls about it. I might try to see if I can get it sold with the condition that I can stay until the end of the year. Everything else seems to be back in order though; especially finances. However, I need to buckle down now and concentrate on my dissertation. Wish me luck!

I just want to give a shout out to my boy Ben "Chromotest Pantsmaker"! Last night was awesome!

No, not because we were kissing, which snogging means in British English but because he drove his motorcycle down to Tucson last night and he and I headed down to the Asylum to see Snog, an industrial band from Australia. They were great! Seriously heavy beats with some really interesting lyrics like "Al-Qaeda is your friend" and a number of other choice words for people like Dick Chaney and George Bush. I love music with a message. The opening band was pretty cool as well. I got autographs of all the Snoggers on a poster I snagged from the wall.

I was saying to Ben how it would have been really kick ass had the builders of the Conexus Cathedral this year at Burning Man (see pic below) could have hung some really long huge pieces of fabric from the sides. That would have made a really flowing gothic feel that would have brought anyone with a goth tinge or thought out of the woodwork. Maybe next year!

For all of you who missed Burning Man, here is an incredible video of the burning of the Art Installation called "Ucronia: Message Out of the Future" that was built by our Burning Man Family from Belgium.

Today has been a good day and a bad day. This morning, I woke up with a number of my friends on couches and in other spots around the house. We all passed out at about 5 AM this morning after a wonderful night of partying as a send off for my good friend Jeff, who you guys all know as alienacean. He is leaving Tucson and headed to his hometown in Wisconsin to contemplate and focus his future. Always a good thing to seek refuge in your fortress of solitude for decisions such as these.

It was a good time. We started with a nice Happy Hour with our schoolmates and then moved on to the monthly Reiki Circle my spiritual family facilitates. That was a great energy boost. After taking care of our colds with a bit of cough medicine (cough, cough). We hung out with a couple sets of his friends and colleagues at a party hosted by one of the students in our mentor lineage. After afew hours of drinking and talking we headed back to another friends place and just chilled with our intimate burner lineage. Great time.

That was the good but what's not so good is that Jeff just drove off about an hour ago. I am sooo bummed now. I love the guy. He is really special to me. He has held a very special and difficult place in my life this last year as I was dealing with my feelings for others and for him. I wish some things were different. The good thing is that we are intimate friends enough to know what each of us wants and what we don't and that makes us so much alike in a number of ways. He has been a friend to my soul, mind and body for the last year and I will miss him, dearly. I hope that some day the one I am with for the rest of my life in what ever form they take will be like Jeff.

Much love my friend as you depart from here but not from our hearts.

As I write, I think of the ancient city of Troy or Ilium, the legendary city center of Trojan War that Homer spoke of in the Iliad and the Odessey. This city was presented a gift of wooden horse from the Greeks and they welcomed it into their city only to be surprised by the warriors who were stowed away within.

Well last night was a great night for me in Troy, NY since I spent it with Tall Tom and another friend of his, who is an academic as well. After I had walked around Troy all day and enjoyed the city while Tom worked, Brigham cooked us a wonderful pasta dinner and peach tart desert. Incredible pastry maker and cook he is.

Well as we sipped wine and had wonderful conversations about politics, spiritual theorys and relationships and lots, lots else, we came to a point that made me feel like I was the residents of Troy.

Tom pointed out that he was disappointed in my lack of knowledge of the full name of the Tibetan Lama that I last year sought refugee in the teachings of the Buddha and his lineage that I was asked to recite the night before by his roommate who is a practicing Buddhist. To make a long story short I told him that when she asked it made me feel uncomfortable. He pointed out that the uncomfortableness then was an issue of mine. From this grew a wonderful lesson about why it should be important to me. I go into more detail about this in my Tribe blog if you're interested. Although, this turned into a wonderful lesson at the time I felt like the Trojans because it appeared the innocent gift of the question was loaded with warriors that sprang out at dinner last night to attack my spiritual path.

However, it was all good because as I said it turned into an incredible lesson that I now cherish.

After dinner Tom and I engaged in a wonderful meditation session that I shall always remember.

Thank you Tom and your wonderful friends for such and incredible visit to Troy, both your town and the legendary ancient one.

:)

So I left Montreal today. Got a ride for about $30 on Craigslist. I would recommend using Craigslist before I do any traveling. It cost me $48 for Greyhound bus ticket, which took me 4.5 hours on the way up. I got to Albany today in less than 4 hours. Not bad.

Met up with my friend Tom and his friend Helen and we ate some killer Indian food. He was tired so Helen and I walked around Troy and I walked her home. I took a little stroll myself and just got back a little while ago. Tom has to work tomorrow so I am on my own.

I'll let you know my Troyan adventures tomorrow. 'Til then. Nighty night folks!!

Wow what a grand day! That's right I said grand. It all started with a session in which my friend Steve Nelson was presenting in. It was awesome because the person who was presiding over his session had been given my name by Henry Walker the day before as a good person to fill a social psych job at Georgia. We aren't even gonna talk about almost passing out when H.W. mentioned my name to someone. Never thought that would happen but anyway. After the session I ended up having an impromptu interview with her. Went well! i think the department is up and coming and I would have a niche in it of my own, if I went there. I will definately consider it.

I also had an impromptu meeting with Dan Myers from Notre Dame yesterday when I was with Omar and Jeff on the way back to our hotels. He encouraged me to apply there as well because of my spirituality/religion interests.

So after the impromptu interview this morning I ended up eating with Steve and Omar and had some killer philosophical conversation. See my blog at Tribe.net or Myspace.com for the details. They left Montreal this afternoon, leaving me to fend for myself, which was fine. I ended up strolling up to McGill University and checking out there really old and cool looking campus. It is really nice. I went to the Soc department but I was too late; they closed so I checked out the campus some more and found my self hiking up the Mont Real, the mountain, foothill is more like it, that the uni sits at the foot of and that the city is named for. It was a great hike. Really contemplative. I think I came to grips with something that happened in my childhood that I had blocked out til now. It actually brought me to tears. We'll see how I am affected in the next few weeks though. Anyhoo, I was back at the hotel writing my blogs until Jeff text messaged me to go out. Oooops! That was hit the night was on.

After some food, we hung out at an interesting western peanut on the floor kinda bar that was in the gay "village" area. It was pretty fun. Very mixed crowd. The highlight were the three music makers, who were accompanied by a drum machine. Two female singers and a male keyboard and guitar player. From there we ended up at a karaoke bar singing along with a bunch of french and spanish people. The most international karaoke, I have ever experienced. Jeff and I wowed them with a nice rendition of "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me." Watch out Boy George and The Culture Club we are on your heals. Ended the night with hanging out back at the place of one of the spanish females with two of her friends and a guy we were hanging out with. The other female had the hots for me. Of course, I am really into connecting the sex back with love so although she wanted more, all she got was a few kisses.

The walk home at 5 AM was characterized by an incredible discussion about action being the inverse of cognitive understanding. To understand that one, you'll have to wait to talk to either Jeff or I personally. This was a really great trip because I really got to know Jeff a bit better and I look forward to many future discussions as our careers take off.

Well today, I am off at 2:00 AM with a ride from Craigslist that the universe provided me sometime yesterday afternoon. Interesting evidence of my congnitive understanding of setting the intention or cognitive supporting an idea and allowing it to manifest. That means I am off to see Tall Tom today and will hang out with hime 'til my flight this Thursday. Will be home soon.

Fun time had by all! I had a great time tonight. I hung out with my friends Jeff and Omar. We went to a bunch of receptions tonight. It was funny because at about 7 I was really hungry and wondering how I would be fed tonight. I started to get a bit nervous and then gave in to meditation. Once I did, I realized that my stress was all coming from me and that the universe would provide what I need. When I let go here came info about a reception that provided alot of food. Wow what a feast! After that, I ran into those guys we went to another reception for more food. We then all got totally ripped with free alcohol from a third. All I have to say is just "know what is" or "put whatever you want out there" and it will happen. No money this weekend but I have been provided with everything I needed.

Much love,

Brian

Well not much exciting happened today. I got up at about 10 AM got ready. Didn't know how I ws gonna get breakfast considering I didn't have any money but I kept leaving things at the hotel that brought me back. Finally, I thought to eat at the hotel restaurant and charge it to my room. Had a great breakfast but I still had to pay for it. My credit card worked and that's all that counts. For the rest of the day, I just waited until I was offered food. Sweeeet!! Just wait and know and it comes.

I went to a couple of sessions, one on qualitative methods and the other on deviance. The qual session was awesome because it was centered around the subjectivity of objectivity. This has been a theme of my thoughts for a while. In fact, Casey and I did a whole treatise on that point leading to the fact that everything exists in one dimension. So this session was quite incredible in that a professor from England has been dealing with the same thoughts.

The other session on deviance talked about black homicide being related to the "cracker culture." An interesting treatise as well. They argued that blacks kill more because they have been handed down that behavior from their Irish/Scottish owners. The problem is they failed to argue the same logic when it came to the transfer of non-violent traits. Why would only violent traits be transferred. Hmmm! Sounds flawed to me.

Night ended up with a really big meeting of former and current grad students in honor of Bill Bunis who died two years ago of cancer. He was a great teacher and I only hope I can follow in his footsteps.

Ok, off to bed now. Gotta get up for some early sessions and I hope a few interviews will pan out.

'Til tomorrow.

I must say I miss a few people. Can't wait to get back and go see DMB with one of them. For some reason I get the feeling I am missed too. :-)

Nighty night!

So I'm here in Montreal! Took a while. Thanks to a bunch of terrorist who wanted to blow up planes with liquid explosives. I was supposed to get into Albany at a decent hour and then drive to Montreal. Of course that didn't work. Everything was delayed and I got in well past the time and the only thing the car rental place had was a weak. No one ways to Montreal!! That makes no sense. So, I had to pay for a taxi to get me to the Greyhound station and get a bus that got me here at about an hour and a half before my presentation.

So is there anything good about this? Yes, after sleeping a few hours on the bus, I woke up to a beautiful sunrise over a few lakes that had the most intense dew clouds. Wow, to see the sun rays coming threw the dew was incredible. It was so incredibly green in contrast to the white and the orange. Vivid!!

So my presentation went great! Even though I didn't have time to make handouts or to finish the paper, I did actually have time to finalize what I was gonna show the participants. They loved it too. They got my crazy ideas and was very HAPPY!! The person who organized all the roundtables sat at our table and listened to my presentation. Of course I already knew him but it was cool that out of about 12 tables he decided to sit out ours. It was fun!!

So after that, I came back and hung out with my hotel roommate and then slept a couple hours. Much needed!!

Went walking around Montreal tonight. A beautifully vibrant city. I think I will be enjoying my few days here. Interviewing by day and partying by night. That is when I have the money to.

Tonight I got a beer bought for me by my hotel "roomie." Of course I will return the favor before the trip is over. Off to bed now.

Great to talk to you. We need to connect more.

Much love!! And wish me luck on my interviews for the rest of the time.

About a week ago a young woman named Margot asked me "How do I want to die?"

My reply?: "I want to die realizing that death does not exist."

Her reply: "No...no...really, how do you really want to die; like do you want to get hit by a car or get shot or what?"

My reply: "You just asked me how I want to die and I told you."

Today Philip on Myspace asked me this question. Are you a Christian?

My Answer:


I am a brother of Christ, and of Buddha and of Brahma and Shiva, an embodiment of Vishnu, a profit like David and Mohammed and a son of JA. I therefore prescribe to no particular religion while listening to and dwelling with all.

Great to be back! Much more to come!

Peace

Yeap, I just realized that as much of an activist as I seem to be today was the first time I was actually out in front of someplace fighting for someone or something that was not directly about me benefiting. I was with my Earth Frist friends protesting at the Fish and Game office here in Tucson. It was rather fun! It was very pleasing to see that there are so many others that care about the protection of other species on this planet. It was very interesting that I had this really intense conversation with a guy on Sunday night about how the Earth comes before any of the humans but he wasn't out there. To me it was just a lesson to reflect how I have been for so long. Lot's a talk but not much action. No longer.

Last night was wonderful. A great time at Jenn's Halloween Party. She is a great host. All of my friends were shining both old (Jeff) and new (Ryan, Garrett, Jenn & Seth). I was glad I got to share some gifts with them. I got a bit wigged out about some of the Engineers that were coming in during our fun time but I think that guy Ryan, the big muscler one with the Detroit hat on from Indiana was pretty genuine. We'll see if our paths cross again. But what was really cool is later I was walking around with Hans who treated me to some Subway later. Thanks buddy. He got this call while we were walking at 4 in the morning and connecting from this guy named Carl in NYC. Who said he felt that he needed to call. So Hans hands me the phone in one of those mystical moments and Carl talks to me about the issue I have been having with denial of the powerful bieng that I really am and that no one wants to hear what I have to say and that the status quo has been fighting my progress. He asks me what would I expect? And he is right. Every great thinker has been in the same exact situation. It wasn't easy by any means. Persecution from the normal thinkers is inevitable when you are challenging the norm. He told me to have a good time this weekend and lock myself down for the four days after and write. Ok, this weekend is Halloween weekend. So my friends lets party Saturday and Sunday cause come Monday, I'm locked down for 4 days. Wish me luck!!

It was me,
my friend Rob,
a few Red Stripes,
some magic chocolate,
and some damn good music from Umphry's McGee at the Rialto.
Magnificent!!