the launch

Our speaking engagement yesterday at UC Santa Barbara was a threshold for us and our work beyond measure.  We shared stories about our friendship, our collaboration, ZBOOK, our other books, and our new postcard project that we launched right then and there with the students: Z.POSTCARDS.  Because our engagement was to speak to the Personal Narrative class, we had the opportuntiy to delve into the performance aspect of the presentation.  In between power point segments, Jennifer performed a personal storytelling with words, movement, and the cutting of oranges... which she then 'passed out' to the students as I continued on into my sharing of history.  Also, for the duration of our "talk," we painted and created Live with watercolors and collage... as a way of sharing an experience of our cultivated modality of art making, versus an explanation.

The surface of our live painting was a "canvas" made of tiled blank postcards.  At the close of our talk we invited students to gather 'round to view the whole postcard piece and then select a card.  This was the launch of Z.POSTCARDS... our new project in which we initiate a newly crafted postcard, mail to anyone who wants to play, and when you receive yours you are invited to add your own mark of art, design, words, and expression to the postcard and mail it on, inviting others to continue the collaboration.  An invitation to play, create freely, let go, and discover the joys and possibilities through collaboration.  Each card is numbered and who knows, maybe someday some of them reunite and share the story of their journey, much like a balloon that's flown around the world.  The students from yesterday have the first cards of the project, and with that the opportuntiy to collaborate with us, plus to (re)discover the joys of the post! (as in the mail, something that seems to be quite forgotten these days)

The feedback from the class was wonderful and we had several stimulating exchanges with students after wards.  Most were sure that we knew about a website called PostSecret.  We said, what is that? Please tell us! Turns out to be so popular that you out there probably know of it already!  The students pointed out that the site is almost entirely geared to the college student market, as the creator of this project tours with his speaking engagements to all college campuses.  They thought maybe this is why we didn't know about it yet.  But upon visiting the PostSecret Facebook page I found a handful of my friends who already "like" it and many are far beyond college age, so how have we not come across it already? Crazy!  But SUPER glad to know of it now... so rad to learn something new from the students :) ~thanks so much!

PostSecret is an art project that invites us to mail in our secrets anonymously on postcards.  The postcards, the secrets, are then posted on the site.  That's it. And it is awesome.  The power of releasing secrets and reading other's has proven to be tremendous, capturing the attention of millions.  And the postcards themselves, the pieces of art people make of them to express beyond the words, are hugely compelling.  In the past 5 years, creator Frank Warren has published four PostSecret books of crafted and mailed in postcards of secrets.  Frank Warren also tours college campuses throughout north america with his speaking events called PostSecrect Live where he shares his story, yet to be shared secrets from a fist full of postcards not yet posted or published, the stories behind the secrets, and an open mic for students in the audience to voice their secrets.

Through our expereince in speaking about our work and performing our stories at UCSB yesterday, it became crystal clear that the power of the work we do is best conveyed face to face, in a live experience where we can tell our stories, share our passion, and speak on the teachings that have revealed through our work: the power of play, innovation, trust, and collaboration.  This is the start of something great, something that feels like it's been waiting for us to wake up to it, and yesterday was the launching point.  Thanks to our former professor Kip Fulbeck for inviting us to speak at his class, presenting us with the match with which to light this fire.   

It's funny, all this year I have been paying attention to "talks" and speakers themselves with adamant interest.  Primarily via TED talks and thru noticing how all the great teachers and innovators that I am inspired by are all active speakers and their speaking engagements are a major part of their careers.  Artists, scientists, authors, visionaries, and innovators such as Seth Godin, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Ken Robinson, Eve Ensler, Jill Bolte, Howard Rheingold, Michael Bernard Beckwith, and Jonathan Harris to name a few.  PostSecrect's Frank Warren, as I mentioned above, is yet another example.  And yet another is our 'SB prof. Kip Fulbeck, artist and university professor, 4 times published, who is continually invited to speak about his work and perform his poetry at schools, museums, and other events year round. 

We feel the noble charge to step up into the role of speaker.  As we now distill (thanks for the great word Kip!) and fine tune our direction and prime audience, we are choosing to begin with young women ages 12-22.

"all and everything"      click to view

One of these girls is shown on Z page this week "All and Everything" as we see Alice jump into the vast unknown... or launch, if you will.  And whether you be girl or boy, we all can relate to these moments that arise throughout our lives... when you are presented with the opportuntiy to step through to a new you, grab the ring, go for it, and jump... this is the launch that takes our work deep and wide, directly to eyes and ears and hearts everywhere.  We accept this noble charge with great honor.


∞ ceci
6

Jump!

postcards a flurry click to view

Today is an exciting day for ZBOOK! Today we speak at UC Santa Barbara, accepting the invitation from our former Professor Kip Fulbeck to speak at his Personal Narrative class, which we took 14 years ago, the same year that both our friendship and ZBOOK was birthed. In preparation for our presentation/performance I have been going through our mass collection of postcards which we've sent each other since that year of 1996. All of our stories could be told just with these postcards alone, they are rich with history gleaned from the date, place of origin, destination address, particular stamps, adorning details such as stickers and drawings, image on card itself, and of course the words written therein.

alice postacard -C to J- 6 July 1999

I came across this Alice postcard and smiled, as Jennifer brought the Alice from Z page this week, "All and Everything," to light in her last post. It's fascinating to re-discover a postcard you've written... it's as if seeing it for the first time! For truly we write 'em and mail 'em and only the recipient gets to truly become familiar with 'em. This postcard was written on July 6, 1998 from Boulder, Colorado by me to Jennifer who was living her summer in Santa Cruz and received my postcards via our PSL buddies Hutch, Coach, and Millar's house in the Redwood Estates mountains of Los Gatos, CA. Vinh and I were on a road trip at the time which what brought us passing through Boulder. The words speak of how Vinh and I had slept in our "capsule" van parked at a public park which we hucked disc at by moonlight the night before and how we were now waking up to a crowd of people just outside our tinted windows going to the near by church on sunday morning. And to that I wrote, "Many a night, especially when we don't have an exact place to sleep, I think about you & your travels. I think about you sleeping in the sand," referring to stories from Jennifer's travels around the globe after her grad from UCSB the year before.

"All and Everything" click to view

Travel, the unknown splendor of it all. Travel is the never ending rabbit hole. As is life. So fun to be a couple of Alices together in our creative mayhem Hemphill. Today... we jump!

∞ ceci

6

week thirty-one >> "all and everything"

Blood is pumping through my soul, excitement pulsing in my fingers. We are shedding another layer of manifestation this week as we and zbook head to Santa Barbara to share our personal and collaborative narratives. Using the healing gift of story and the image exploding opportunity of power point, Cec and I are climbing up the rabbit hole to lay down some funky right brain / left brain tonic into the atmosphere of studio 1340 on the UCSB campus this Wednesday, 11/17/10 – power twin intention... activate!

The metaphor of the rabbit hole arises this week as Alice appears in pink; falling, tumbling, slipping down our red gelatinous drawing toward the web of childhood playground. I myself fell down a rabbit hole once in India. I was minding my own business, absorbing the spicey coast of Goa, India, when a young English woman named Jane showed up one afternoon saying she wasn’t sure why she had left where she had just come from. Being the incredibly helpful and insightful travelor that I am, and was, I responded, “why, you came to find me and take me back to that place from whence you came.” And so it was, that Jane and I boarded a crickety, stickity, old bus and bounced for thirteen hours across the country to Pune, India. After such a journey, we emerged into light once more, dropped at the doorstep, at the gate actually, of the OSHO Commune International. To gain entrance into this community, which I desired, I submitted to an AIDS test, negative, and soon after began a six week meditative exploration in a buddha field.

One of the guides who emerged in that time space for me, was a beautiful, round, bubbly Indian woman named Nirmala. Each night, to prepare for the evening gathering meditation, all attendees bathed and donned white robes, dresses, gowns, anything free flowing, just white. Nirmala invited herself into my shower and captured my attention with her stories. She was having an affair with a smitten Englishman and her Greek husband was aware and troubled. I believe she had been to the Ashram several times, in her youth, when the master, Bagwan Osho, was alive, and now she was back for a stay again, along with her husband, though they kept separate apartments in town. My own apartment finder had been linked to me through Jane, who had been conned into bed by the swindler on her first visit (before returning with me). He was always trying to seduce me it seemed, though I was quite guarded with my sexual energy at the time still. Nonetheless, I was very grateful to him for helping me find a little nook to call home in Puna during my stay. There was a communal hole for a toilet, and there were a few other temporary dwellers in a couple of surrounding rooms, but the main occupant of the apartment was a sweet woman who always had a smile for me and helped me feel safe and welcomed. I didn’t spend much time there, nights occasionally, it was mostly a place I could keep my belongings dry and secure.

Nirmala’s apartment, which I had the pleasure to overnight in a couple of times, was a glass-walled, wood-floored, book-laden, zen-haven. Her space overlooked the rushing river running along the town.

One morning, after a night of debauchery with some young Italian boys we had commandered, I awoke in the dawn hour, feeling very light and energized. I sat facing the river with my sketchbook and pens in hand and proceeded to engage my own deep meditation with a colored spiral drawing. After some time, Nirmala joined me by the window and our speaking commune was so entwined, that we both felt elevated into a different rhythm. Nirmala, who had a very active third eye, told me later that she could see me like a buddha. For me, it was my most enlightened moment thus far experienced in this life. Afterwards, as we joined the Italians for breakfast and then ventured to a lake retreat for the day, I felt so connected and clear headed, everything felt joyous and light, and I felt that I could see through any bullshit... it was a turning point in life for me.

During my stay at the commune, I participated in many aspects of community life, and engaged in most of the daily meditations and a couple of the special, intensified offerings. At lunch everyday, after eating, I could sit along one of the exterior corridors, and listen to a taped recording of Osho speaking. Some of the most memorable teachings came from those lunch hour sessions. Often, he would speak about people, those wise and otherwise as well. More than once, I recollect Osho referring to a man called Gurdjieff, and always he spoke with respect for his teachings. Thus, when I came across the writings of G.I Gurdjieff when I was back in LA, perousing the Bodhi tree bookstore, I took home the books and entered the worlds of “All and Everything”.

All and Everything is a three part series. The first massive part, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, is purportedly an avenue for dispelling the myths which the ego has enshrouded humanity in. I have not yet had the fortitude to withstand that full path. I have however, crossed the river into the second book of the series, Meetings with Remarkable Men. This series of autobiographical stories of people with whom Gurdjieff engaged in through his search of mystery knowledge across Asia, Africa and Europe is incredible and image rich. I’ve read through this part II of the series several times, and could learn from it for ever and ever no doubt. In fact, with this weeks zbook spread approaching, I picked it up from my bookshelves and entered it into my bathroom book keeper. Having re-read the introduction while enthroned, I knew I must move it into my backpack to have on my person through the coming weeks.

To end this post, I wanted to share a recent gleaning from All and Everything, 2nd series. It is said that a human must strive to keep intact both the lamb and the wolf, to be in truth with herself.

Gurdjieff shares this challenge: How can one get across the river and keep whole the wolf, the goat and the cabbage, if only one can be ferried across at a time?


The answer lies in making an extra trip!


This week, I look from the vantage of the Hawk for guidance- in awe of Earth and Sky. Please share your thoughts, experiences, flow... we’d love to hear from you!


Be well and Blessings, -Hemphill