So, as it turns out, I’ve landed in Viroqua, Wisconsin rather than Los Angeles. Although for a certain bit of perverse symmetry, I did manage to fly into the La Crosse airport, so there's a at least little bit of "LA" in my story.
I've been told this is a magical place, and indeed it seems to be. It's intensely quiet, and even though there have been many grey days, it lifts my spirits and seems to be subtly vibrating at exactly the frequency my soul wants. My friend Kristin - along with many others here - works for Organic Valley (keep an eye out next time you are in the dairy section of your supermarket), so there's a strong community-wide commitment to organic, local foods, reduced consumption and a vision of sustainable sanity. Yes, this means there are a lot of hippies - but they seem to accept me as long as I remind them of my long-term goal of having really kickass dreadlocks.
Kristin lives in an old house by herself, so she has plenty of room for me. I'm staying in the upstairs bedroom and spend my days working, either in the kitchen or at the Driftless Cafe, or at the Viroqua food coop –all three of which of which have wi-fi, good coffee and tasty treats. We hang out pretty much every evening, making dinner and lately, watching bit torrented episodes of "flight of the conchords" on her laptop - there's no tv. I also showed her how you can watch "the office" and "30 rock" on nbc.com, so she thinks i'm a genius.
We're really, really good friends. In Minneapolis, we went through a two year personal transformation/have-a-shovel-fight-with-your-demons training together, so to say we know each other well is an understatement, or at the very least, a statement. Long story short - it's great to be with a supportive, loving friend who's always down to chat about the personal and metaphysical aspects of the process that i'm going through (or give me a hug, some bodywork or a nice cup of tea). It's a good process - emotionally harrowing, but always returning me to a place of peace, collapsing the tower I've been living in so I can feel the ground beneath my feet. I'm coming back to new york city a different person - I have a much clearer idea of who I am and what I am being called to do with my life.
That, and I'm also much taller - which not only gives me a new perspective - I also expect it to be useful in beating up my enemies.
Work is going well. I've completed my review of Ableton Live 7, which will be the cover story of the December issue of Music Tech magazine. So, when you're in some mega-bookstore that carries such things, take a look! I've also completed the first quarter of my book, another big relief. Lots more writing to do over the next couple of months...
Another bit of fun on the music front is that Kristin is spearheading a dance party/participatory art event this weekend in la crosse. I'm DJing (I've also booked my friend Paul "El Tigre" Frett from Minneapolis), and acting as a consultant. It's fun getting to test out some of my ideas about collective-building and collaborative art in a very different place. So far, it feels great. I think it's going to be a good one. There's going to be a crystal grid and a laser spiral (whatever those are), a big blank canvas for everyone to paint on, a chi gong class, a crazy digiridoo jam session, and of course some funky beats.
Ok, time to wrap things up and get back to fighting my "war on terror." I've included a couple of photos of me sitting here at the Driftless Café to give you a visual for this dispatch.