Look What I Did Today

I went to Malibu today. We took our sister out for her first surf lesson at Topanga state beach. Then we went lizard catching and hiking at point dune. I ended up biting it so hard down the trail, slamming in to rocks before I stopped in a pool of mud. I had a goal of turning pasty gut in to golden brown gut. I am so tired.

Girls Are Bad For Me

I have discovered that girls are very bad for me. I get too wrapped up and forget about myself. It is a good learning experience I suppose. I have to learn to be detached and to do things for me for once. The more I do things for me the better I feel and have more confidence. Girls (or girl in this case) is very bad for me. I hate how I get so wrapped up. I need to concentrate on me for once.

Heading North

So tomorrow I am heading north to Redwood Valley California. It is about an eight hour drive. There is going to be some kind of program at my friend Govinda's house. I am feeling weird about it. I have a lot of feelings around there for some reason. Plus I am in transition as usual. Trying to think of the next six months. I think I will study for a real estate license. Then I will go on tour next year some time with shelter now that they are signed.

What happened today: I went to get my car looked at (grease emanating from front wheel). Mechanic said don't worry about it and keep driving. Get back to him if something happens. Went to a CPA to calculate the small fortune I will dig up for big brother. Other than that I just did laundry and worried about stuff I don't feel like blogging about. Sorry.

So little time

I haven't been able to blog for the last couple of days. A few things happened, I just have to see if I can remember all of them. I went to Santa Barbara on a whim last Saturday with my sister Shakuntala, and my cousin I just met from Kentucky. The stupid thing is I didn't take any pictures of some of our cool events even though I brought my camera along.

I got more news of a Shelter tour and shows. Shelter was asked to do a reunion show at a festival on the east coast with the original line up. It will be Ragu Porcell and I will probably play either bass or rhythm guitar. Then I also heard that Shelter finally got signed to a German label, and will release the new album soon and will be aggressively promoted and do a tour some time next year through Europe. Sweet. Ragu is also buying a house and wants me to move in with his family. We will do fun things like raw food, juicing, Jiu Jitsu, Muy Thai, Music. Sounds great to me.

Mmmmmmmm Juice....

I am now nearing the end of day three of my juice fast. It has been pretty good so far. The first couple of days are the worst, then you get used to it. If I even start to get a little hungry I have to get to a juicer pronto or I run out of gas big time. I am planning to go at least a week or so. My juice of choice is carrot, apple, ginger, with a splash of lime. I've got so much energy!

I should have been working today, but I decided to go shopping instead. In Beverly hills no less! I went to the Westfield shopping mall on Santa Monica to get refills for my Franklin Covey planner.

Now the Santa Monica area is known to be a gay area, which doesn't bother me in the least, but I realized I probably put on the wrong shirt. It is an old school tight fitting Hawaii shirt, that happens to have a rainbow with a cursive 'Hawaii' just underneath. It seemed that I would say oh, ninety percent of the people working in that mall were gay men. I got a few winks. Next time I will have to think about what I wear out.

Oh. And someone sent a picture share to my phone of the inside of a colon.(?) I didn't Recognize the number so I sent a reply that read: "What the F#@%?"

Back at the studio

I have been back in L.A. for the last few weeks. I am again faced with adapting to the environment at the studio. It is on the fifth floor of an industrial building in the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. Once you get off the street, and take a ride on the huge elevator designed for lifting 1930's Cadillac's to the top floor, things are a bit better. But it is a work space, so living in that can have it's ups and downs.

When all is said and done, I am very happy to be with my family and to have the opportunity to be able to come here. We're discussing taking over the business from pops. I personally haven't been in to really taking it over, but I still would like to look in to it. I am still out there discovering what it is I like to do most.

We were talking about living in a consumer crazy society. Everywhere has that mentality, but it seems L.A. is unmatched, or at least more at the surface than other places I've been. You feel like you should, need, and are entitled to more here. It makes you want to live in the hills, but then I again I find my self wanting more.

Chowpatty

Just a couple of days ago we were blessed with a visit from three Chowpatty Bramacharis. They are the same ones I traveled to the Himalayas with back in the summer of 03. We made a huge feast for them at our studio. They sang really nice prayers in our temple, and Govinda Prabhu (above) asked for me to go on a south India yatra with the other Chowpatty devotees this December.

Oasis of Murals

We just got back from Twentynine Palms. We were there to look at the many murals they have for restoration. It is in the desert next to Joshua Tree, and is very beautiful. They wined and dined us, putting us up in a really cool hotel where we had our own cabin. We got to go to Joshua tree and climbed around a bit. It is in the desert with one hundred degree temperatures, and I got burned yet again. We may go back in a couple weeks or so.

Bowling Madness

This is actually kind of old. We did this about two weeks ago. It was tons of fun. I thought I was going to be all super good, but I just sucked most of the night. I let my aggressions out on the air hockey table though.

The Visit

I am having trouble updating my blog. It's always the same story in L.A. There is always so much to do. Plus we had the Prabhupada Festival. It was really great. You can see pictures of our handy work on the pillars in front of the temple. I also got a general shot at night of the street. I like how the color came out with the long exposure.

It was really nice to see my good friend. She was here for about a week or so. She along with a bunch of other people are staying with us in our crazy artist loft/workspace/temple/home. We are having a full house, and in the top picture we are enjoying Hans Bergman's Magic flute. It is a fantastic movie.