Party and Bullshit

so many things have happened since we last talked. dad came to visit on friday and we've been kicking it since. dad, mom, and i, along with some of moms friends all went out on saturday night, and i must say that it was one of the livliest ones that ive had in a while. the last two weeks or so ive been on that monk status, in the sense that ive been getting out of town on the weekends (to the plantation) and havent gone out. it is the only way to achieve my aim of not smoking or drinking, both of which i find to hamper my reading, soccer playing, and meditation. so anyway, it was nice to go out a little bit with the fam, and we ended up in an afterhours spot where me and dad left at like 530. thats right, my dad was out until 530, although his only excuse is that it was only 1130 NY time. so anyway, it was a great night, it was really nice to see mom and dad hanging out and just kickin it, i cant remember the last time i seen it.

after waking up appropraitely late for the time we got home, me and dad headed out to his friend david deans house. we got there at like 5 only to find that no one was home odly enough, so we headed to the nearest town for some beers and dinner. we ended up catching the real madrid game which was nice and when we finally went to the house it was only to find one hell of a party going on. well this man david dean is something like the czech protector. appartently his house is always full of people from the czech republic that he brings in to do work around his place. so anyway, we walked into the place to find some shit out of a movie. imagine a long rectangular room lit by candles with eastern european (i suppose czech to be precise) music BLASTING. we walked in pretty much sober to find everyone in a state of madness. im not quite sure what drugs were in use, but i later found out that they had been drinking whiskey for breakfast that morning, just to give u the tone. needless to say i was anxious to get the duby snacks rolled up and enter into the communal mayhem. these cats were fucking crazy, it was really out of a movie, i mean, they were just shaking up beers and spraying them on eachother, they were just pouring wine all over the place. one guy, andre, decided to start chucking glasses over his shoulder.

so i woke up the next morning only to discover where i was. this place is ill. it is a small village (and by small i mean small, as in 20 houses). the whole village is off the grid, they have their own water supply which is pumped up from the spring that is born about a km upstream from them using a hydrolic ram pump which appartently uses the weight of the water to pump itself up aabout 100m. it was quite impressive. (now i am speaking about davids house since i dont quite know whats good with the others) the electicity is supplied by an array of solar panels that line many of the houses, which a gas generator for rainey days. they have to bring in their own drinking water from a nearby mountain spring becasue the local one is full of gypsum and not very tasty at all. the negative aspect of all this, is that when david installed all of his solar panels and such it ended up costing him over 35000 euros, not exactly chump change. i am really interested in this living off the grid buisnes because i fear the day may come when this will be the only, or best, way to survive.
davids house itself is really magical and quite beautiful. one of the czechs that has stayed at his house, and mine for that matter, is my sisters friend myra. myra is a terrific painter, i mean really spectacular, his artwork is visible in the suns he painted in my house, but there are some truly exquisite pieces at davids, that i photographed for you.
thhis was painted in a small door in the house, the effect of seeing it for the first time is surreal. The Time Gate

and this is his other piece Queen Kaya III. both of them are spectacular, this one is like 4'x3'. being such a bad painter, i really appreciate a good painting, especially when its done on a large scale. any sort of mural type painting really dumbfounds me. i love it.
this and the following paintings were made by other people, but are still excellent. this is a mandala in the center of the living room. the quality is superb. it must be at least 5'x5'.
and me dad and david dean in front of it.
now this shit is huge, it must be like 15'x12'. it is absurdly beautiful and well made. these paintings are an example of the kind of talent people have who are almost totally unknown. i hope that i too will be able to take people in when i have a place of my own, be able to help them out, and have such beautiful tokens to remember them by.
and finally a picture of me hiking in the hills around davids house with dad.
peace and love
em