Sunday, September 19, 2010

FROST


Robert Frost is an easy dude to right off when you're young and hungry for experience, smirking at the books on your parent's shelf. As time goes by however, you catch up, suddenly all the poems about scoring heroin and being wasted and lonely seem kind of empty. Frost is a guy you gotta right off in order to eventually understand, you gotta see the emptiness and arbitrary experience in suffering for sufferings sake. It's really only then you can start to appreciate the folks who sought peace with themselves and the world around them. In the tradition of all the ancient Japanese and Chinese poets, he sees how much is reflected internally through an experience with the natural world, he gets past the duality until it's all one body, one memory. So in honor of all that and the approach of Autumn, here' my favorite Poem by Frost.


Birches

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-coloured
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground,
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm,
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows--
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate wilfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree~
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

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Saturday, September 11, 2010

Can I Live. Pt. 2 "Proliferation"

Like hippies seeking vibes, Christians seeking the souls of godless natives, or buccaneers seeking plunder, since the early days of "plan on wheels" skaters have roamed the lord's green pastures and Lucifer's dark alleys in search of skateable spots. Back in the days of "Red Dawn", fear of the communist hordes did not keep American skaters from slipping behind the iron curtain and shredding Latvian hillsides. Most recently a group of skaters snuck under the radar into Cuba and gave away 200+ boards to folks there who, were definitely suffering from a lack of equipment and on top of that, harassment by Cuban cops for engaging in an "activity of the enemy" (Mission Skatepossible) . And there it is, no room for skating either way, the gov frowns on it, the Superpower restricts the resources necessary to engage in it, but kids have been and still are skating anyway, just like everywhere in the world. Skating like great art, changes the perception of the observer and when perception is altered an internal shift often occurs as well. Skating (again like good art) can lead to the development of a fierce independent streak, a healthy disregard for authority, and a fine tuned bullshit detector.
There are fierce and ruthless forces currently at work to keep people separated and dependent on the minority that hold all the money and power. The tools of separation at their disposal are endless, ethnicity, religion, culture, history, all these can be exploited to keep people fighting and divided. Skating can lead not only to the questioning of this propaganda but also to the outright rejection of it by direct experience. Getting together and skating with others or just observation through mags and media, allows people to connect on a level deeper and more subjective then social and cultural prejudices and grievences.
The Dali Lama was onece asked what advice he could give on how to resolve the Israeli/Arab conflict. He responded "Throw more parties." Let people get together, relate to eachother as individuals hanging out, and peace will prosper. So, in honor of throwing more parties, and sessioning around the worlf, here are a number of links to groups using skateboarding to help impoverished youth, bring kids from conflict zones together, and just info on skate scenes all over this bouncing blue marble.

SKATEISTAN - Skateistan is one of the dopest nonprofits since Medecins San Fronteirs. The organization got its start when some Aussies working for a development organization in Kabul Afghanistan brought their boards. Skating around the abandoned Olympic pool (which under the Taliban had been a site for executions) they soon attracted large groups of Afghan kids, who in the world's second poorest country, broken from 30+ years of war, had little opportunity to play and be kids. What started as just getting kids together to skate, have fun and build confidence, has lead to the construction of the first Kabul skate park as well as an attached school. In order to earn skate time kids gotta attend the school. They bring together kids from all different ethnicity's (all of which have a shared history of conflict against each other) and teach both genders. This gives kids the opportunity to connect and play without all the baggage of cultural and social identities. Their site has tons of examples of all the awesome shit going on including a soon to be released documentary.

The Uganda Skateboard Union - There is a skate park in Uganda and a scene of inspired skaters surrounding it and this is their website. Currently I think their repairing and adding to the park while continuing to shred East Africa. Tons of photos and great posts available on the website.

Skate Arabia - A skater run blog breaking down the skate scene throughout the Middle East and North Africa. A wealth of information and cool photos/articles. This is a really well organized and run page and incredibly interesting. So here's what I propose, we fly into Rabat and work our way across North Africa by land skating everything until we hit Muscat, that my friends would be a real war on terrorism.

Skatenacion - Well run, slick page dealing with all things skating in Colombia (where I was told that if I rode my board down the street I'd immediately get it stolen). In Spanish but can be translated.

Skate Malaysia - All the things going down with Skating in Malaysia as well as info and links to skating in other countries in the region.

Sour (a documentary) "Sour" is a skate documentary about "nine skaters from Israel and Jordan jumping borders and cultural barriers to share a united passion for skating and life." It has been making the film circuit both in the states and abroad and is an incredible testament to the power of skating and its possibility as a tool for change. The creators of Sour were gracious enough to sit down for an interview with Resort to Cannibalism that will be posted soon. Till then check out this site.

The Bedouins.org The Bedouins is a site dedicated to using art and skateboarding to advocate for peace. It is run by the creators of "Sour" and gives updates and information on various events related to the documentary or put on by the organization. They are looking for galleries, etc, interested in participating. Check em out.

Bridge To Skate - Like Skateistan "Bridge to Skate is a humanitarian organization that uses skateboarding and play to aid in the creation of life skills, promotion of health, fostering of peace, and the education of cultural differences internationally." It is currently operating in Honduras with hopes to spread to other countries

All these sites have links to a ton of other awesome information and are worth exploring if your interested. Also check out The Gaza Surf Club for a group doing similar things but with surfing in the fucking Gaza strip. Also stay tuned to R2C for an interview I did with the makers of the Sour documentary.