Philosopher in the Desert

More Theoretical things

2008-05-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

The day after the gig we went out to the beautiful Sabino Canyon for my first photo-shoot with the band. As well as being a truly magical place, we got some very good pictures. The published set of which can be seen on our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Theory/42891885363?ref=mf

They will also shortly be up on the band's official website at www.thetheorymusic.com

Be well all

Battle of the Bands Final

2008-05-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 24th we played in the Finals of Jam Solid Battle of the Bands. We played a 7 song set which varied from swing to trip-hop to Indie-Rock and had a great gig.

We had 80 or so of our fans there (three of whom were wearing home-made 'Theory' tee-shirts) and the rest of the crowd from the previous acts.

We were slightly put off our stride by technical problems during sound check but were back in the zone during the first song. We came in a very close 2nd place. There were four judges each giving marks out of twenty in four categories, so that's a score out of four hundred. We were 2nd by six points, so it really was incredibly close.

The important thing is that my last gig before I return to England went great. The shot in this post is me taking the front-man spot for the song Atheism. You can watch a video of this performance on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKFcA_f8R0g

Be well all

Eden Transformed

2008-05-27T21:15:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I had a transformative experience. I returned to the Eden Hot Springs (mentioned in a previous post 'Hot Springs Eternal'.) However whilst there several extraordinary things took place. I discovered unconditional love, which is all about being able to give it and have that experience. Only when one has experienced the giving of unconditional love can one fully experience the receiving of it. I became fully aware of the power and energy which I have been developing over the years during my Aikido training. I am now tapped into it and more importantly am able to share it in the form of intentions, therapeutic conversation and directly during massage.

I found new siblings whom I had not previously had. My band are now in a very real sense a family, whom I love very dearly.

I have suffered from depression since puberty (fourteen years now) until this weekend. I am currently enjoying the longest period of happiness in my life (ten days and still riding high!)

I become more observant of the world and my wonder at it has inceased ten fold. I have developed the beginnings of what the Buddhist call mindfullness. I become aware of my thoughts and responses before I publicly announce them and thereby have more choice about my overt behaviour.

The world it turns out is a fabulous beautiful place full of happiness and fascinating things to explore, engage with and comprehend.

Peace and love to anyone who reads this

Be well all

Towards a Science of Consciousness 2008

2008-04-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

The big week arrived and everything was a bit nerve wracking.
I had given my Consciousness forum public talk on the Wednesday before the conference and it had gone quite well but not fabulously. The timing of that turned out to be excellent since I altered my concurrent presentation based on some of the comments and feedback that I received.

The conference went incredibly well. On the first day I was attending pre-conference workshops on quantum effects in brains and psychiatric dis-orders of self-perception, both of which were very interesting and also making some new friends.

Day 2: I co-ran a pre-conference workshop on Panpsychism (the meta-theory which states that everything in existence either has a mind or mind-like properties.) The workshop was entitled 'Panpsychism: A spectrum of views' and that is definitely what it was. I was there to give a Philosophical defense of my sponsor Stuart Hameroff's theory of consciousness and it went very well. The conference officially opened in the afternoon with a short introduction from Stuart Hameroff, which included a stop-frame animation of one of the consciousness songs which he commissioned the band to write (which you can watch on you tube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL_07TQvhsQ) By getting Anastasia and myself to stand up afterwards Stu ensured that we both had very public profiles at the conference.

Day 3: 'Judgement Day!' My first presentation of my work at a (probably 'the') big international
conference in my field. I was presenting last thing on the day, starting at 6pm, so I had the whole day to stress about it. As it turned out I didn't need to be worried about my presentation only the technology involved in presenting it. For some reason the little connector needed to plug my new Macbook into the projector which had taken 2 minutes to find on Day 2 took 2 1/2 hours to find on Day 3 leaving me in a panic and only actually ready to present with about 5 minutes to spare. The actual talk went very well. I have a recording of it for anyone who wants to listen (yawn). After my talk I was surrounded by a group of new people wanting to thank me for it and was invited out to dinner with 4 of them (which was bought for me.) Obviously I took the fact that I had exercised all of my academic responsibilities for the week as an excuse to drink for the first time (and probably overdid it a little.) After dinner (and slightly tipsy) I was interviewed for a documentary about Panpsychism which should be coming out at the end of 2008.

Day 4: From this point I could just enjoy learning and discussing and just have fun at the conference. Thursday was a light day with the afternoon spent out at the Tucson Desert Museum with cocktails and dinner.

Day 5: More consciousness stuff in the day-time and in the evening the first of the band's live performances. The open mic and poetry slam was great fun. We opened the show with our three consciousness songs performing as our alter egos 'The Brains'. During the open mic bit I also sang a solo acoustic song about a Philosophical thought experiment which went down very well. At the end of the poetry slam is the 'Zombie Blues' an open mic blues fest which we backed up as the band, lots of fun.

Day 6: Talks continued until mid-afternoon when the formal part of the conference ended. I then went out to a local natural beauty spot Gates Pass to watch the sunset and have a beer with some of my new friends.

In the evening was the End of Consciousness party at which the band played as ourselves.

It was a great night, lots of very positive feedback about the band and we all had a terribly enjoyable time (the band were getting free Margaritas)

2008-03-11T14:34:00.001-07:00

Viva La Revolution

2008-03-11T14:30:00.001-07:00

In order to complete my cultural exposure of America I decided that I should do something totally non-English. To that end the band I went out to the desert and spent a morning shooting automatic weapons. It was a surreal experience. Despite having very strong views on gun control, I had alot of fun and turned out to be quite a good shot with an AK47 being able to take out an 'enemy' balloon from 100m. Whatever the moral implications we got some fun pictures of the band.

More gigging and a public lecture given by me!

2008-02-19T22:25:00.000-08:00

I have my second gig with the band on Friday this week. I've learned the
whole repertoire but we have yet to settle on a set list. This week excitingly we put together one of my songs 'Atheism' with the band and it's sounding awesome. It's always so surprising and rewarding playing my songs with other people and the band really nail it.

On the academic front, I've almost finalised the abstract for my paper at the consciousness conference, but closer at hand is a public talk by me on March 4th to the consciousness forum. I will be giving a longer version of the paper which I will then present at the conference (which I am yet to write!)

On a more somber note my Maternal Grandmother, Nanny Joyce died on Saturday. Unfortunately I will not be able to make it back to England for the funeral since it is financially not viable. My brother is saying som words on behalf of the grandchildren and I'm sure he'll do a good job.

Be well all

Theoretical debut

2008-02-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, whilst still recovering from my chest infection I played my first gig with The Theory. We played and won the first round of a battle of the bands
at The Rock in Tucson. That puts us through to the final where we could win some recording time in a professional studio. Despite being a bit nervous (not so much of messing up my own performance but of messing up and spoiling the band's performance) I played a great set and we went down a storm. Lots of people signed up to our myspace page as friends of the band
after the gig.

Phlegm and fun

2008-02-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

For all of you 10's of people who are reading this blog, my apologies for lack of activity recently. I was taken quite thoroughly ill with a chest infection
which I only really got over on Saturday. Some would call it man-flu, but I was actually really
unwell for a week; fever, aching joints, total fatigue, generally crap.

However on the plus side, my sponsor very much liked my re-worked abstract for the conference in April, so that's a good thing. I'm also booked to give a public talk to the consciousness forum on March 5th which will give me a dry run for my conference presentation.

Hot Springs Eternal

2008-01-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

I spent Saturday evening and Sunday at a quite magical place. 2 1/2 hours drive from Tucson is a dilapidated hotel which used to be at different times: a health resort, a hippy commune and rumour has it a hang out of the Rolling Stones. The hotel was built next to a set of ancient hot springs some of which have been piped into pools and waterfalls. I have to say that it was probably the most relaxed I have ever been in my life. Sitting in a hot spring pool under the cold clear desert sky. It took a couple of hours for the effect to kick in, but once it had, I was just in a happy daze for the rest of our time there. When I awoke on Sunday it was as if I never really woke up. I spent the day in pleasant semi-trance, slowly walking from pool to pool, exchanging happy quiet greetings with whomsoever I came across. I have found a place in the world where even I am quiet. The site called 'Eden' is incredibly bizarre. The hotel is no longer a hotel, just a big run down house with lots of empty rooms. You bring your own bedding, your own food and drink. There were about 15 people there, mostly wandering around in bath robes. The link is for a much more organised retreat unlike the very relaxed affair which we attended. Unfortunately although tired when I got home the delightful carefree feeling had departed before I got to bed last night. I guess I'll just have to go back.

http://www.dancingbutterfly.net/retreats/arizona_hotSprings_eden.html

Almost there

2008-01-23T14:59:00.000-08:00

Today I (finally) officially became enrolled as a non-degree seeking student at the U of A. That meant that I could get the keys for the Grad rooms in the Philosophy department. I therefore now have a desk and off the back of that was invited to join a Metaphysics and Epistemology (Nature of things and theory of knowledge) reading group earlier this afternoon. It was nice to get into a seminar situation and have some back and forth with some well trained philosophers. They are a bright bunch here, sharp and engaged.

I have overdone things already at yoga. Strained my knee yesterday and I'm suffering today. Typical me. Find something positive to do physically and then overdo it straight away.

Having wrestled for a week with the bank out here, my payment to Apple finally went through and my laptop should arrive on Friday, so pictures should soon be up.

On the more exciting news front, the band with whom I have been playing have been confirmed to appear in an animated film which is in pre-production. The film currently entitled 'Mindville' is about consciousness and consciousness studies and the band will be appearing as their animated alter-egos 'The Brains'. We've been working on three songs for the film, one of which I wrote the music to the other day. We may have a cut-across live action/animation music video produced before I come home. We should also be paid to go into a professional recording studio to lay the tracks down. Very exciting!

Getting bendy

2008-01-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

Having a bad back and wanting to train hard in Aikido is not a good combination. I have decided therefore to do something else for a while in the hope of strengthening my back. To that end I have joined a Yoga group here in Tucson. http://www.yogaoasis.com/ They really are friendly people. It's almost as if all that stuff that they say about yoga relaxing you and making you a more compassionate, happy and open person is true... well I could certainly use a push in that direction. They have very good teachers (which is really the most important thing.) And bizarrely I have felt that my posture is straighter after just two sessions.

Settling in and getting started

2008-01-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a rather full couple of weeks. I've been playing piano with my new best friends 'The Theory' http://www.myspace.com/theorythe and am on the verge of being part of the band. I have now moved into my new apartment, have a decent bed and my back is recovering from the trials of the one that was there when I moved in. In the process of decorating and making it more homely (pictures will follow just as soon as I buy a laptop and can download them from my camera.)

I have been working on my paper for the big conference here in April. Lots of constructive criticism from my sponsor Professor Hameroff which is very useful.

Be well all

Arrived

2007-12-29T15:41:00.001-08:00

Dear World,

I have been in Tucson for almost a week and things have been rather busy. I have in the past week: watched my first college basketball game, observed open heart surgery from about 12 inches away, hiked up a mountain, and watched the prismatic display of colour which is a desert sunset. I have today signed a contract on an apartment just on the edge of the University of Arizona campus and have already had some input in the forthcoming international 'Towards a Science of Consciousness' conference http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/tucson2008.htm

Photographs and further updates will follow as soon as I've bought a new laptop.

Be well all