Amazing painting

So I'm currently writing up my Datura experience, it will be at least a few more days, maybe more, until I'm ready to post it. Man, that shit screws with your mind something fierce, I'm still trying to process the experience 12 days later so it may take me a little while to get my thoughts in order and get it all onto metaphorical paper. In the meantime I found this amazing video which just absolutely mesmerized me, and I thought I would share it with you!

Credit where credits due, I found this on Derrick O's excellent blog wifihighfive.  If you haven't already, you should really check Derrick's blog out, heaps of interesting and diverse content on there, and it is updated VERY regularly!  Hope you don't mind me pinching this Derrick :P

Daytrippin, roadtrippin

Mushroom hunting grounds

So it's been a long time between posts.  I was going to make some excuses or whatever but I don't really have any.  I spent a couple of weeks roadtripping down to Melbourne with two new-age types from Israel and then slowly making my way home again.  These guys loved their psytrance and psychedelics, so we got on just fine.  As I mentioned in a previous post it is goldtop season here at the moment (goldtops are a type of magic mushroom) and so we stopped before getting 20km from Lennox at a paddock that is a great hunting spot and filled up a couple of buckets.  These boys were good fun to trip with and I got endless amusement from their awesome accents (as did they from mine lol).  They also had some really kicking tunes - it seems like Israel is a nexus for great psy and electronica for whatever reason and they gave me a couple of CDs before we parted ways.  Those boys were awesome!

Our vehicle - rented by my Israeli friends from Wicked Campers

Melbourne's about 1600km from Lennox ~ 2 days driving straight through, and my newfound friends planned to stay there and work for a couple of months, so getting home was not a trivial undertaking.  But life is about the journey, and my journey was an enriching one.  I hitched a ride north from Melbourne with an awesome lady, Gail, who would have to be at least 70.  She took me all the way through to Orange, and then on learning that I had no real plan and certainly no place to stay, she offered me a foldout couch to sleep on, which I took gratefully.  I was pretty tired and crashed out pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow, and then I woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs.  Man this woman was awesome!  Got up, had breakfast with her and her husband Bill, and then spent a few hours perusing the wonders of Bill's huge shed.  This guy likes machines and obviously spent most of his time building things and tinkering.  He was pretty excited to have somebody to show his works to.

Gail offered for me to stay another night at their place if I couldn't get a lift out of town that afternoon.  Really awesome people.  I mean, it's experiences like sharing time with Bill and Gail that really make me love life!  We're separated by about 60 years and obviously have very different interests but that doesn't mean we couldn't have a lovely time together.  And I was really touched by the fact that not only did this old lady driving on her own stop to pick up a pretty ragged looking 20-something hitchhiker, not only did she drive me 800km closer home, but she put me up for the night and cooked me breakfast in the morning!

Lovely, lovely Jameys.

One thing that surprised me was that Gail and Bill loved their irish coffee.  The night that I spent there we went through almost a whole bottle of Jameson together, and I was pretty impressed how the old girl could hold her liquor.  Bill only had about 2 drinks and me and Gail sat up drinking the rest until about 1 in the morning.  I'm pretty poor at the moment, but before I left town, I thought the least I could do was buy them a new bottle of Jameys to thank them.  Man it was a struggle just to get them to take it!  They kept telling me "no, no, you're a poor student, you can't afford that, you keep it" etc. etc. but eventually I convinced them.  Really awesome people!

The last leg of my trip from Orange back to Lennox was reasonably uneventful.  I got a lift with one guy up to Dubbo, and then within 10 mins of getting out of that car, I got another lift with a bloke headed to Tamworth.  I stopped in Tamworth for dinner (mcdonalds) and by this time it was about 6.30pm and starting to get dark.  I was a little worried because if I didn't get a lift before dark I'd be stuck in Tamworth until morning, it's very difficult to hitch a ride after dark, especially on country roads.  Again, I was very lucky and a guy on his way through to Grafton picked me up.  This was just fine with me, I've got friends in Grafton and it's only a couple hundred kms from home.  Rocked up at my mate Pete's house about 10.30, had a few drinks and a bit of a smoke and then crashed on his couch.  The next morning Pete told me he needed to go to Brisbane soon anyway, and Lennox is on the way to Brisbane, so he agreed to head up that day and drop me off on the way through.

Wow, thats a long post, sorry about the wall of text, but it was an amazing journey, and I'm so glad that I am in a position in my life at the moment where I have no commitments, so if I want to spend 2 weeks hitching to Melbourne and back again I can.  Met some really amazing people.  I will definitely make the effort to pass through Orange and catch up with Gail and Bill next time I'm in western NSW.

My route

Life is Awesome =D

I also had another "interesting" expereince in the time since my last post involving Datura, that at once wonderful and terrible little trumpet.  But that story is for another post, another day.  Anyone who has experienced Datura knows that it won't be a short post ;)

Anyway thats me done for today, hope you are all travelling well, and I promise I will endeavour to update more often.

Peyote

Look at this big, plump, juicy thing.

Man, peyote take a LONG time to grow.  I have kept these cacti close to my heart throughout the last five years, carrying them with me in all my travels across this great brown land.  Four of the specimens you see were carefully nurtured  from seed, and now, 5 years later, they are barely 1 cm wide.  The fifth, and largest, was entrusted to me at the same time as the seeds when it had already graced this plane for 3 years.  They require love and attention, especially when growing outside of their natural climes.  This population originally numbered 12, 10 grown from seed and two preconceived, however over the years seven of them have succumbed to various blights and unknown ailments.

These were given to me by a friend who was leaving the country and couldn't take them with him.  He advised me that they take 7 to 10 years to mature so I knew that this would be a long term project, however they require little time, effort, or financial investment, so I was happy to enjoy their company upon my windowsill.

Regeneration.

One of the great things about the peyote cactus is it's ability to regenerate.  When a peyote button is cut off, if the plant is healthy enough it will regenerate two or more buttons in the same place.  You can see this in one of my smaller cacti which was attacked and half-eaten by a bird about a year and a half ago, and has now regenerated into three buttons.  So when you eat it, you get more back in the long run!

People looks like this?

Now, the largest of my cacti is 7 years old and has reached maturity.  I'm turning 24 in march and I figure its the perfect time to partake of his fruit.  I've not experienced mescaline before, but from talking to a few people it sounds like a really awesome trip.  A couple of people have described the visual aspect of the trip as being akin to being inside a cubist painting, everything becomes all blocky and square.  Sounds pretty interesting.

Have any of you guys experienced mescaline, either from a peyote button or in some other form?  Let me know in the comments!

Awesome Trees

Just a quick post, its 4am and I should go and crash out, but I just found these images through stumbleupon and thought I'd share them with you guys.  These guys at Pooktre Tree Shapers have been shaping living trees into various shapes for years.  I just love this chair!  How awesome does this stately hippy look, chillaxing in his living tree chair? 

The other ones like the table and the "people trees" are awesome too, but I really love this chair.  When I have my own property this is definitely something i'm going to make.

Ok now i'm going to bed.

Chill tunes + Alex Grey

A friend of mine owns a property which is about 40 acres of rainforest at the end of a valley near mullumbimby.  It is an amazing place, you drive down this little road which eventually becomes their driveway.  Most of the way down the road there are cow paddocks, but at the border to his property you pass over a causeway and on suddenly your in this magical wonderland where the rest of the world just doesn't exist.  The entire propert is old-growth rainforest and you just would not know that the rest of the world existed in there.

Yummy!

Anyway, I went out there yesterday to have a couple of beers with him and a few other mates.  About 5pm my mate turns to me and says "you know it's been raining for days and its sunny today".  Now this may not mean much to you, but to me it means one thing - goldtops.

Goldtops are a type of magic mushroom which grow abundantly around this area from November to March, but they need a good couple of days of rain followed by a nice sunny day for them to pop up.  It was perfect conditions.  So we all went off hunting through the paddocks up the road for a couple of hours and came back with a huge load.  Cooked up a tea and that was that.

It was an awesome night, but my head doesn't feel quite right today.  One thing I really love about hallucinogens is that, for me at least, they very rarely produce ill effects the next day, so today I'm feeling pretty good.  Nothing like a hangover or anything, but I just feel like my mind has taken too much stimulus and needs to relax.  So, I've got a great track for just such a day, I'm sitting here at home listening to the whole album and feeling a nice cool breeze wash over me.  I think when I finish this post I might go for a swim.

Anyway, without further ado, I present Leftfield with a track off the 1995 album Leftism called Release the pressure.  Very chill.  Also, I have some transcendental artwork by Alex Grey for you to enjoy!

Now i'm going for a swim :D

 

Some cool music...

I have some music today which I think you might like, its not traditional psy-trance, and I don't really know how you'd classify it...It's definitely electronic but very down-beat and using a lot of organic samples.  The artist is a guy called Spoonbill from Melbourne I think.  He played Rainbow Serpent this year, a huge electronic music festival in Melbourne on Australia Day.  So anyway this is one of his tracks, called bouncing stones.

You can listen to every one of his tracks free online at his website so if you like this, you should check it out!

Now I also have a second track for you guys, this is some older psytrance from a few years ago, but it's one of my favorite tracks ever I think.  I have no idea who this is by, it's on a compilation cd given to me by a mate with Goldies 2 written on it.  Let me know what you think!

Whats it all about etc.

Earthfreq 2009

Alright, I guess because this is the first post I should do some sort of introduction type thing yes?  I am a 23 year old guy living on the north coast of NSW near Byron Bay.  There is a pretty big psychadelic / electronic movie scene up here, and I get out to a doof (bush rave) 2 or 3 times a month.  I love the doof scene because what could be better than a couple of hundred people partying together for a couple of days in the middle of the beautiful Australian bush.  They attract a huge variety of people, and everyone is there for the same reason, to get loose and relax, so there is very rarely any aggression.  The drugs of choice tend to be LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA, as opposed to speed and coke in the city, and as a result the crowd is a lot more relaxed and friendly.  The parties usually go for a couple of nights, although there are some 1 night ones, so everyone has their own little camp set up with a fire in winter, and everyone is really welcoming and friendly.  Of course there are exceptions to this, but after living in Sydney and partying in the clubs there, I must say, I feel that there is a much nicer, friendlier vibe to the doofs which I love!  You often see people there with their dogs and kids, I remember one night meeting a 10 year old kid on the dance floor, dancing his little heart out.  It's awesome!

People bring their dogs and kids

So this blog is going to be a variety of music, images, thoughts, experiences, and whatever else I want with the common theme of being related to the psytrance / dub-step / electronic scene in one way or another.

Ok, now some pics of doofs I've been to over the last few years to give an idea of what i'm talking about, if you haven't had the luck to go to one of these parties.

lol munted djs

People bring couches on the back of a ute to relax and chill out