[Oh, Snap] Strolling Through The Stanford Cactus Garden

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While roaming back from Oregon to California, the open road delivered a reinvigorating tonic like no other.  Between the diverse landscapes and lush landscapes paired with deep conversations and silly banter, wanderlust rushed haphazardly through my veins while the
fire in my heart was reignited.  But after almost ten hours on the road, the last thing I wanted to do was get behind the wheel of anything for an adventure to anywhere, so when we brought up the idea of going for an afternoon walk – I was stoked.

The weekend after Thanksgiving marked the first time in forever I’d had some downtime in the area and I wanted to take full advantage of every inch of sunlight. We kickstarted the day from Menlo Park, strolling into a downtown area that felt preserved in time.  Green, yellow, and red leaves glided effortless like Rasta confetti while the crisp, clean Autumn air provided refreshing shift from the frigid Winter-like Oregon mornings and perpetual Summer sun and Springtime temperatures of Los Angeles.  After going to one of my former favorite haunts for sandwiches, we were off, off and away into Palo Alto to visit some of my favorite hidden gems at the Stanford University Campus.

After 31 years, there’s a lot that’s changed in the Bay Area – but thankfully for me, this is one of the few areas that’s stayed the same – and it holds some of my favorite local landscapes like  – like Stanford‘s  Arboretum, Mausoleum and the Arizona Cactus Garden.  The cactus garden is one of the few remaining landscape artifacts from Leland Stanford’s estate.

Officially named Leland Stanford Junior University, the campus was established back in 1885  in memory of Leland Stanford’s son.  Not only was Leland Stanford a former Governor and U.S. Senator, but he was also the Co-Founder and President of the Central Pacific Railroad. Originally, there were plans to build a mansion on the plot of land but once his son passed away from typhoid fever, plans were amended to build a university instead.  A true testament to their sense of community, the Stanford’s took it upon themselves to ensure that the entire generation their son would be part of would build a successful world.

A beautiful and lasting testament to the transformative power of love, the cactus garden was restored in 1977 and currently holds over 500 species of cactus and succulents separated by geographic hemisphere and continent. And let me tell you, these specimens were out of this world!  I’ve never seen a Joshua Tree so grandiose or cactus so threateningly tall.  Plus, there’s nothing quite like seeing the neon blossoms in striking dichotomy against moody shades of green.


Photos from myself, with additional photography from Daniel Leist.

[Make Your Own] Sparkly + Seasonal Home Decorations

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When I was younger, it felt like the holidays would  wait until at least after Thanksgiving to waltz into the world and steal the show.  I don’t know if it’s the awareness I’ve accumulated as an adult, or a fact of our modern reality but the older I get – the earlier and earlier the seem to sneak up into the everyday life.  Little by little,  Mariah Carey and The Ratpack have planted yuletide ear bugs, sweetly serenading me while Christmas commercials run rampant over the airwaves and my visual spectrum becomes inundated with red, white, green and glitter everything.  The holiday season provides a wonderful excuse to spruce up the place and though I’d love to ball out and adorn the apartment with brand spankin’ new holiday decorations, I have to admit that there’s something so gratifying and satisfying about making decorations all on your own.  Last year, I perfected making homemade candles so this time I thought I’d try my luck at something a bit more naturally beautiful.

Just the other day, when I dropped by my favorite local clothing shop – Native Boutique, I caught myself ogling their adorable holiday dresses, toying with the strings longingly as I lazed through the store.   Not only do they have a killer $20 rack outside, but they’ve got a welcoming staff and a stellar selection of clothing for the female young professionals that know how to both work and play hard.  While making my way through the aisles, I noticed they had some beautifully simple decorations lying around on cabinets, tables and cupboards – glittery, shimmery pinecones!

With the amount of camping and festivals that Danny and I have been to over the last three years, we’ve actually amassed quite a number of pine cones that are scattered throughout our place – the coffee table, the alter, and in even in a batch of potpourri that I made out of a bouquet of roses. I’d seen a few posts that detailed painting the cones like flowers, but that seemed a bit much for me – glitter, however, that I can do! It’s the perfect combination of natural and whimsical, while providing the perfect accent to any coffee table, window sill – or even in a bowl of pretty and pungent potpourri.

Supplies:

Instructions:

The great thing about the sparkly, seasonal pine cones is that they’re as easy to make as they sound and the result is beautiful any way you spin it!

  • Start by laying down a protective layer of cardboard or newspaper over the area you’ll be crafting over – that way you’ll keep all the MOOP (Matter-Out-Of-Place) in one area.
  • Gather your pine cones and flowers in a central area for efficient work space
  • In a small mixing cup, add any and all of the different glitters that you’re putting on the first pine cone

  • If you’d like to spare yourself glitter-fingers, toss on a pair of plastic gloves.
  • Shake the can of spray glue and remove the plastic top, spray can on a third of the pine cone and loosely sprinkle enough glitter to cover the glue.  Repeat on the rest of the pine cone.
  • Set pine cone in a safe place to set and repeat steps on other pine cones; allow cones to set over night
  • The next morning, take a blow dryer on the lowest setting and dust off any excess glitter.

Voila! Easy, breezy, beautiful home accents that can liven up any room 🙂


[Traveling Tales] The Best iOS Apps For Roadtrips

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From the second I got my first car at 17, I realized that curves are for hugging, being on the road is physically cathartic and that the shortest distance between two points is me in my car with the windows down and music up.  Though I’ve developed a map-titude over the ages, I’m constantly praising the cell phone gods that smart phones exist and that developers are willing to share their genius with us.  From directions to attractions, a place to lay your head and places to explore – I’ve found a good set of phone apps that have you covered. Just remember – whatever you’re trying to do, wherever you’re trying to go: there’s a better way, and there’s definitely an app for that.

Lodging. 

Make sure you’ve got a birds eye view into one if not more, of the following apps so you can get a comfortable roof over your head for pennies on the dollar.  My personal favorite is AirBnb, especially because you can snag an entire domicile for an incredibly low rate – or just a single room if you’re flying solo or traveling with your best friend or significant other.  HomeAway and VRBO are great resources if you’ve got a larger group in tow, while CheapTickets can find you a discounted hotel room in milliseconds.

So Much Room For Activities. 

One of my favorite things about road trips is that they can take you wherever your little heart desires – want to head to the beach and cruise the coast? Do it!  Or how about a detour through the desert or a romp near the river?  A road trip is the quintessential choose your own adventure experience and you’re the captain.  Sometimes, it just takes a wish and a will to find something novel – but if you’d like a little assistance, download Roadtrippers for a nifty guide around your location and it’s comprehensive for the entire United States.  After signing up, you can save and share travel routes, not to mention a look into a broad range of activities within a close proximity to your travel path plus the net value of gas for your trip.

Find Yourself

If you’re an iPhone user and you’re trying to get anywhere important, or just find a specific location in general –  do yourself a favor and stop using Apple Maps.  Seriously.  Download Google Maps and Waze immediately, sit back and enjoy the seamless integration and easier to use directions that don’t lead you into the ocean, or into a dead end.

Stay organized.

I don’t know about you, but I love lists – sometimes I even have lists of lists, others I’ll purposely put a few things on it that I’ve done that day so I can instantly feel the struckout satisfaction of what’s been accomplished. But for some reason, When it comes to buckling down and actually packing for a trip I always tend to forget the little things.  So a few years ago, I made a master list and saved it to my hard drive; when I got sick of referencing it – I tossed it up into a list on Evernote.  A great alternative to a bulky Google Doc, Evernote provides a simple forum for staying on task and on top of your life.

What are your tricks of the trade when it comes to traveling?

Let me know in the comments below!

[Traveling Tales] A Leisurely Road Trip Down the West Coast

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“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

I’ve been told that there’s only one constant in life, and all ironies aside – that constant is change.  As with the old adage ‘this too shall pass‘, I’ve developed a thicker skin and a willful resolve in the understanding that no matter what I’m doing or the trajectory of my life, the chances of a roller coaster moment is coming are high – so hold on and enjoy the ride.  The ups, downs and in-betweens are all wonderful side-effects of this passionate, purposeful and perpetual, journey around the sun.  This past year alone has been a crazy one, it started with a bang on a social high and it’s ending on a more personal, yet equally loud, roar – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The holidays have always provided me ample time for retrospect, possible due to the lack of a social circle in Oregon – but mostly because of the long flight up and almost two hour drive in from Portland to Corvallis once the plane lands.  Even though I’m not originally from Oregon, my dad is and I’ve felt like it’s been my second (well, technicality third home for my entire life).  Since I was a wee little one, I’ve been frequenting California’s stately neighbor to North.  Plus, now that my dad is inching towards retirement he’s left the busy, bustling and vibrant city life of San Francisco behind while trading it for the slower paced, quieter, country life of  Corvallis; where the claim to fame is green grass, football and Oregon State University.

Since they’d spent the last few months moving, my step-mom was over the moon excited to see us for two reasons – it’d been almost four months since the last time the family got together and she couldn’t wait to unload whatever household items they didn’t need into our possession.  Whether her excitement was from Column A or Column B simply didn’t faze us – we were over the moon about both! Originally when we discussed how we were bringing it all back to Los Angeles, we’d considered renting a van or renting a U-Haul, and had jokingly mentioned that we could just fill the old ’98 Ford Expedition  for a full fledged, super fun road trip – maybe we’d bring it back later in the year and use it as an excuse to come visit again; the options felt endless! Instead of laughing at us, they mused that we might as well just keep the truck since all it had been doing over the last give years was gathering rust and spiderwebs in the garage.  Without missing a beat, we jumped with joy and resolved we’d only have to book a one way flight to Oregon – and could spend the tail end of it road tripping down through Oregon to San Francisco and then on to Los Angeles.  Sure, we had the chance to travel down this path when heading to and from Shambhala but we’d always been in such a rush and never seemed to have the time to smell the proverbial roses or bask in the delightful Oregon sunshine.

If you’re not from Oregon, one of the first things to understand about traveling during Thanksgiving Break is that you’re going to find yourself in a bit of traffic from the Civil War Game.  Every year after Thanksgiving, the Eugene based University of Oregon Ducks take on the OSU Beavers for what’s contended to be the 5th largest college football rivalry in the United States.
If you’re a football fan, it’s a proper time to rejoice – but if you’re trying to make your way down the 5 to California, beware – because there’s really only one major freeway and depending on your timing you might just get stuck in it.  That’s literally the only weekend of the year I’ve ever seen traffic in Oregon. Instead of getting stuck in traffic, we decided to not only leave early but to take every detour we saw fit – we were in the mood to enjoy ourselves and for once we weren’t rushing back to LA on zero energy!

Our first stop was the little known Corvallis BMX Park on the edge of the city where the Marys River and the Williamette River collide.   Some parts were too waterlog to risk, others were too icy to entertain – but throughout it all it was an enjoyable adventure, even when we had to look up exactly what poision oak really looks like. Then we were off, off and away to a rest stop near Oakland, Oregon that looked like it was straight out of a fairy tale with vibrant greens, radiant yellows and blossoming reds.  Time had come to a standstill while we stood there, laughing like five year olds as we waltzed the empty paths around the field, enraptured by our momentary microcosm.

By the time we reached Mt.Ashland, it felt as though we’d experienced the brevity of all the seasons in just a few short hours.  First a cool breeze and sparse sunshine, blossoming into sunshowers and scattered clouds as we climbed our way into an indescribable winter wonderland.  Squealing like a schoolgirl that hadn’t seen snow more than a handful of times in her life, I pleaded with Danny to pull over at each and every turnout so we could embrace the snowfall, dance on the purity of the ground… and apparently have a snowball fight or two.

By sunset, we’d conquered Yreka and saw a beautiful orange and magenta shimmer off of snowcapped Mt.Shasta

We got to Menlo Park late that night, to wake up to the excitement of a stunning Saturday in the Bay Area.  It’d been forever since we’d had a day to just spend some time with my mother and I was beyond happy that she could host us for the weekend.  We spent the day gallivanting around the Bay Area to all my former stomping grounds – Strolling through Menlo Park, and into Atherton where my old High School was to grab lunch downtown at Le Boulanger, then into Palo Alto, Stanford Campus and my favorite hidden gem of a botanical garden. It was a whirlwind few days with a lot of driving and a ton of walking, but it felt great to stretch the limbs, expand the mind and really connect with my family and my fiance.

 

[The Audiofiles] Ferry Corsten Marks 2016 As The Year of The Gouryella

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According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2016 is the year of the Monkey – so it’s only fitting that it’s the year Ferry Corsten’s trance monikercomes to life on the big stage. Tried and true Trance fans, raise a glass and rejoice – and prepare for an unforgettable musical journey. Originally a creative collaboration with Tiesto from 1999, the Gouryella side project released only a small handful of highly acclaimed tracks, only to dissipate in the early 2000’s. Don’t be confused If you’ve never heard of Gouryella, you (a) are not alone and (b) probably unaware that he’s produced music under over 20 other pseudonyms, transforming Ferry Corsten into the man of many musical masks.

He’s produced solo albums under three other names, System F, Ferr and DJ Sno-White to produce the currently seasonal Santa’s X-Mas Dance Party from 1996 (yes, almost 20 years ago), while his solo projects range from East West, Festen, Lunalife, Zenithal and Skywalker to collaborations
like Vimana with Tiesto, New World Punx with Markus Schulz, FB with Benny Benassi, and Veracicha with Vincent De Moor not to mention, over a dozen with Robert Smith like Double Dutch, Blade Racer, Starparty and Sons of Aliens. Earlier this year, Ferry Corsten revived the Gouryella alias to release the deliciously driving single Anahera, and you could say that from there – the rest is now history.

In a Facebook note this morning, Ferry stated:

“’ve always loved the musical qualities that make up the Gouryella sound, and in the time when so much trance is swaying too far to EDM, I want to bring big melodies back to a scene I’ve spent my entire career championing. Gouryella will allow me the opportunity to exercise not only my desire to bring back a sentiment to the scene that I think is lacking in some parts, but equally deliver a new live concept that will represent both the music and visuals, as well as enable me to detail further the mysterious naming which has always made up Gouryella and the titles of the singles.”

From the moment I was introduced to his music, I was enthralled and entranced (pun intended) by the musical landscape and auditory adventure provided by both individual songs and his elongated club and festival sets. First it was his phenomenal closing set at the fabled Together As One of years ago, when Insomniac and GoVentures still partnered on the event; Ferry played a passionately playful closing set, extending it an extra half hour for the glowing crowd at The Shrine. Then within the next four months, I was lucky enough to witness him play an intimate, maybe 100 person show at Santa Barbara’s then up and coming dance nightclub – Statemynt. The goosebumps from hearing now classic tracks like ‘Beautiful’, ‘Fire’ and ‘Brain Box’ from right next to the DJ decks are as real eight years later as they were back then.

The announcement of his Gouryella tour comes right before the release of #HelloWorld Part 3 EP, out on his own Flashover Records imprint December 11th.

Pre-order Hello World here!

Stay in touch with Ferry Corsten and get the latest on all things Gouryella through his socials.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud

[Oh, Snap] A Quiet Corvallis Morning

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“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

In Los Angeles, and essentially anywhere in California, we’re subjected to a go-go-go mentality intermixed with a fast paced lifestyle. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like we can fit a whole 24 hours in the day – zipping around from task to task, our heads are in the air and our feet rarely touch the ground; how many times have you wished for an extra minute here and there to smell the roses, or for the scenic way home.

Instead, we rush from one frame of mind to the next, often never even delving into our innermost complexities and questions in order to meet some imagined deadline.  We hurry in hushed tones, seeking approval before self acceptance, forgetting to kindle our inner fire before choosing to passionately  ignite the world around us.  Too often, we’re required to put ourselves last – to place our universe on life’s back burner while living up to standards we never agreed to, yet can’t avoid trying to live up to.

At those times, we need to let the world around us dissolve as we turn inwards to our hopes and dreams, wishes and desires. The external world doesn’t understand your emotional richness or personal passions; instead, we’re erroneously adhering to an apathetic formula where money and time are interlaced. The tangibility of having is deemed better than the effortlessness of giving and somehow,  presents have become more meaningful than presence.  With heightened access to social media, our haves become have-nots as we compare to contrast, stacking ourselves against the world in continued contempt.

Every once in a while, we need to be released from the societal shackles that made us believe we continually have more to prove to the universe and instead focus on what we can give to ourselves. The bustling and hustling of everyday life doesn’t allow us to fully marinate within the moment, allowing a full undulating understanding of our personal growth and maturation. Take a step back and see yourself from a birds eye view, sink into the full weight of a second, take it slowly and then take it twice.  It’s only within quiet moments of meditation that we’re able to truly evolve.

I’ve only been in Oregon for less than 36 hours but I already feel my muscles limbering from the top of my crown to the tips of my toes.  I’ve been awakened, reinvigorated, ready to take on the world while fanning my own flames. I feel myself growing, evolving, understanding my minutiae contrasted with the novel nuances in emotion.  In stark difference, of how I live in Los Angeles it’s quiet life, life surrounded by the whimsical wilderness of nature and the breathtaking beauty of Oregon’s lush landscape.  It’s simpler here, slower, calming and all sorts of cathartic. The weather has been blissfully blustery with a sprinkling of sunshine almost unprecedented here this time of year.  It’s a paradigm shift, and I’m curiously caught in mid-swing.




  

 

[Self Discovery] The Sanctuary of Sound

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 “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Back and forth, I paced through the living room, burrowing a path in my wake while my thoughts and anxieties replicate the pattern in my head. Wrapped up in some proverbial search for enlightenment, I’ve become consumed with undulating emotion that I’ve yet to find a way to express. Walking a thin line between loneliness and simply being alone, I try and covet each second like a blanket fresh out of the dryer yet I’m still beside myself, slightly disillusioned and mostly out of touch with my core.  It feels like emotional betrayal wrapped inside internal disintegration; the champagne supernova in my veins spilling over unwittingly, spiraling into a black hole.  I swear, I used to be at peace with myself.

Through empirical and existential experimentation, I’ve discovered that the self is a fragile entity, bound tightly by rhetoric and coddled by the ego.  Let love, kindness, happiness, curiosity and wonder in and the self opens like a blossoming flower; restrict any of these, replace them with dishonesty, jealousy, envy, belittlement or callousness and the self shrivels up and dries out, only to delicately crumble under its own weight.  Every once in a while, we need an outstretched hand and warm smile, a delightful emotional sprinkling of honest goodness; as people we need to be wanted – as blooming entities, we need to be watered.  Yet, we often forget that in order to maintain fulfilling external relationships, we have to be in tune with ourselves, we have to tune and play to our own resonant frequency without being drowned out by the chorus of noise around us.

We come into this life alone and leave it in a similar fashion, yet somehow along the way we become convinced that we as we are aren’t enough.  We’ve become subjugated by the notion that in our present state we aren’t enough, we give into the idea that we have to become more than we are. Get good grades to get into a good school, so you can have a good job – and your life will be good; so we give in, ascribe to a system that we inherently know we don’t want to be part of in order to appease everyone, except maybe ourselves. Thrust onto the world, we’re perpetually in search of the niche that we fit and the keys to the locks that release our chains and set us free; often forgetting that buried inside ourselves is the skeleton key, under layers of thick skin we’ve built to wall ourselves off and protect what we feel most delicately and deeply about.

For every reaction, there’s an equal and opposite reaction – this is as true for physics as in life, but it can be difficult to understand where, in this chicken and the egg spectrum, your pushing on the world ends and it’s pulling at your heartstrings begins.  For the past few months, I’ve felt separated from myself, setting forth an internal domino effect that’s forayed into my external life.  In becoming emotionally withdrawn, I became physically withdrawn, lethargic, apathetic and distrusting; opposed to work and even play, my smiles were fleeting and slightly contrived. I was lonely even though I wasn’t alone, an island that wished it was landlocked, forgetting it’s part of a bigger landscape. Finally, I broke out of my shell, shucked my thick skin in favor of a light soul; I resolved to rediscover myself, to unfold inwards and expand outwards, to fluidly move forward instead of passively pausing.

Somewhere in the two steps forward, one step back waltz of life, we forget that we need to be the leader and the follower.  That to be at ease with the world around us, we have to calm the calamity within. Whether it’s the schoolyard gossip spiked by adult behavior or feeling over-inundated with world tragedies, the world has weighed heavy on my shoulders lately and I haven’t been able to shake it off and set it straight.  Writing is my refuge, my safety net, my confidant and my therapy yet lately when thoughts bubble to my surface I play emotional whack-a-mole to drive them further inside, down to my core.

When words fail, music speaks – the sheer emotional power of a song can be unfounded, but in one way or another we all believe.  Music calls to me, like the howling wind on a desert night or a brightly lit path on a lonely night and on Saturday  it felt like the music was beckoning me, flirting with my faculties and seducing my sense as I entered the Shrine.  The four to the floor rhythm catalyzed my energy while a glow of sheer ecstasy emanated from the crowd; leave it to the dance floor to set me free. Embarking on the evenings auditory adventure, the trials and tribulations of my external world fell to the wayside while the music consumed me. Each and every person there has a world inside them that’s twisting, contorting and spiraling; but for one night, we were able to put our worries aside and plunge into life.

Losing ourselves to rhythm, our limbs eagerly erupted into harmonic movement. In discovering the we between you and I, we pass each other in elegant dance instead of silent ships in the night, as if saying ‘the chaos in me acknowledges the chaos in you.‘ Though we might have arrived alone, we come together in symphony while marinating in the miracle of each moment, undulating as one giant organism.  The dance floor is our savior, the music is our sanctuary and the DJ is our saint. Those who fancy themselves religious have their church on Sunday, but my church congregates in the depths of the night to create new bonds and forge deeper relationships, with the world and most importantly – within ourselves.

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche