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With so much happening at Lightning In A Bottle this year, I wanted to take a minute to share some final instructions for any of my friends or contacts that I haven’t been in daily touch with regarding festival details like ticketing system, emergency calls, etc.

If you’re one of these people not in daily contact with me on these issues or are but still have questions, please read on below for some final instruction. My time is uber-tight at the moment between final planning for LIB, an emergency container pack job for The Do LaB’s Portugal job/trip, the Distinctivefabric.com build-out and move into its new space, and some miscellaneous details like trying to find a new home with my girlfriend and still somehow maintaining time for the usual with my duties on the MINC board and as a Sugar Shack collective resident.

Needless to say, the last three are falling behind to varying degrees, for which those involved have my genuine apologies, but this scheduling mayhem wasn’t unforeseen, my life is what it is.

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Hello friends-

Hope everyone’s plans for LIB are coming along nicely! I’m really excited to connect with everyone on site, it’s going to be an amazing experience this year…just a few things to get out of the way and be totally clear on.

If anyone is planning to arrive at LIB before the gates open Thursday at 4pm, you will not be admitted unless you’re on the early arrival list.

If you’re not yet on an early arrival list, then most likely you don’t need to be as you plan to be there after the gates officially open. If for some reason you were planning to be on site before the gates open and are not signed up through the official volunteer channel, then please contact by 10am tomorrow (Thursday), to arrange these details.

For those speaking on a panel, please send me your preferred email to be used in conjunction with your event entry, details will be emailed to you, I believe (most likely with a link or print-out). Details on this still haven’t been made completely clear to me, so please bear with us as we’ve got a completely new system via Beticketing.com this year. I will make sure that the final details on this are made available to you as soon as possible…

If you have any final questions about entry, panel details, or any other needs, please be sure to email before this Sunday. I’ll be out on site as of this Sunday and will have limited time/Internet access to address last minute questions.

Please, please, please do your best to wrap things up in this time-frame: I want to take care of everyone’s needs and requests, but can only do so much, especially once we roll into high gear for build-out on site next week.

Also, once next Thursday night/Friday morning rolls around, I will more than likely be unable to reply to calls or text messages. If you absolutely must contact me and have already left a voicemail or text message once, please refrain from leaving others. If you’re at the gate and have a TRUE emergency (like your ticket print-out doesn’t work or for some freak reason you’re name isn’t on some list), then have someone with a radio there try to reach me, as I’ll be more likely to get a walkie call at that point.

Again, please do your best to finalize any details you’ve been putting off or were unsure of, now. I want to make both our experiences with this event from here on out as seamless as possible!

Thanks for your attention and cooperation with all of this. If you’re already receiving instructions from another Do LaB/LIB staff member, please just stick with them from here on out.

The snapshot shown here isn’t a complete picture of my life right now, but it’s pretty close.

I worked with The Do LaB at Coachella again this year, installing the now legendary “Lucent Misting Oasis”, which evolved into “Misting Oasis” for this year.

We spent 8 days down in Indio on the Empire Polo Fields toiling and playing under a beautiful sun, creating some of the most wicked-beautiful art and shade structures ever seen. Given an acre+, we erected some 35 or structures built with rattan, some metal (new to the design this year) and all the other magical bits that make the installations super dope.

We had amazing talent perform all weekend aside from Jesse of Brazilian Girls suppose fame…he sucked and in no way should have been representative of the space and magic that was flowing wildly there the rest of the time.

Aside from that, all was wonderful.

Today we’re all back in LA, finished unloading the truck and are catching up on Lightning In A Bottle work. Then later this week some of the crew will be back on the fields for Stagecoach. Then full tilt into LIB is over and done with in this, it’s 9th year (3rd year to the public).

I’ll be editing my pics as I can in the midst of all this and posting to my Tribe, Flickr and Myspace accounts, maybe elsewhere too.

Musical act highlights from Coachella for me were: Portishead (simply rocked), Aphex Twin, Yoav, and parts of Prince’s set; unfortunately I missed Roger Waters since in all the excitement no one had planned for the truck rental pick-up the following morning - so I volunteered to bounce out early with the only known ride (Jenka, who was getting back to all her great, hard work on promoting LIB). But, I hear it was legendary…will have to check in this year’s DVD. From our area: Jupiter, Sammy Bliss & Jesse Wright, and Chad Rock.

All-in-all, our area was the party for all of us I think, with a few cherries on top elsewhere through the wknd.

I recently had to pack up the bulk of my personal stuff from storage at my internet fabric store’s warehouse.

I moved it all to the Sugar Shack, where I’m living, working and otherwise spending 2/3 of my time these days (it’s a great little microcosm), with the help of some my roomies from there, one of my biz partners Josh, and my closest confidant, Tristan. In the process I tweaked my back the worst I’ve ever done…getting too soft these days, way too much time on the computer, but that’s another post entirely.

So today while one of my roomies Ryan Wartena had another powwow with his Watts Up America buddies, I figured I’d get around to sorting through the mess that is my life in storage below the floor upon which I’m writing from.

Having made the migration from Sugar’s formal dining room to its warehouse (really just a glorified garage with loft space upstairs), I quickly set to work on the bare essentials of my new office: desk, chair, shelves, computer, soundsystem, and power. And let me say just how great it feels to be seated again in my own sacred space, which is really what this is largely about for me.

Check out these pics out to see what I mean. Here’s one in case you don’t:

Anyway, as I said in my Twitter post, now I’ve just got to get about 400+ lbs of books upstairs, sort and shelve. And the finishing nicknack touches. Then the art, lighting, window shade… Okay, so far from done. But it’s a great start at bringing the level of focus, detail and order to my life that I need, especially these days since I’m doing way too much still.

*Note: I’ve had the little soundsystem you see above since I was 13, talk about conservation, heh?

The user of Twitter is just one more step in our evolution as a species. Before you laugh, consider this:

The pace of our society and its technology continues advancing at an accelerated pace. Every piece of technology that comes along, from cell phones, texting, instant messaging, blogging, wireless Internet (and all that encompasses), are all but tools of communication.

Telecommunications, teleconferencing, telephone…how about telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation?

Twitter is yet another stepping stone in a collective, sometimes unconscious effort to reawaken our latent gifts.

I use Twitter to merge multiple streams of consciousness: be they businesses (I have at least 3 biz profile accounts), shared collective profiles (again, I use at least 3 other accounts), or just my personal one.

Twitter is a great melting pot for all sides to life. No longer is 9-5 separate from happy hour (or after hours), or weekends. They’re all steamrolled into one, collective consciousness.

Instantaneous news, experience, shared joys and sorrows, mundane minutia…they’re all here for us to experience one, unified lifestream of thought and action.

I use it daily even if I fail to post that day, as I still absorb everyones’ shared feeds into each other’s networks.

And of course, make use of it to plan with friends and contacts, find new ones, etc.

Lastly, though it’s tough to sum up all that Twitter offers into one ten minute post, is the artful, Haiku-like, Twitter-speak that’s evolved into an art form by some. Such posts are a pleasure to read.
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From my Twitter post as prompted by their latest feedback request.

It’s been a busy past few weeks as I had my pilot solar powered web server configured.

It’s been a wee bit of an undertaking since quite candidly, I’d never really bothered to learn Unix and its use through the command line shell. So I’ve been scouring through several books, forums and picking several friend’s brains to get past this learning curve.

After an initial failed attempt to get Plesk installed on Debian, I switched to CentOS and then branched off into researching DNS configurations, settings, etc.

Simultaneously, I started a web hosting plan comparison (while waiting for my unlimited domain Plesk license to arrive) to start zeroing in on the services and pricing that Green Gurus would be offering.

I didn’t find many clear tutorials online or in my books (everyone always assumes you already have some foundation that I apparently still don’t :), so I called upon another one of those friends/contacts, this time Zak Brown (an Orangekid contact) and sat down with him for two hours downtown at my shared warehouse (with The Do LaB).

Thankfully, he gave me a pretty detailed overview of DNS configurations and then some help buttoning up the solar server.

Now I’m noodling around with some test domains, trying to solidify the tutorial…unfortunately it takes awhile for most things to sink into my dense, Capricorn head.

Thankfully, I’m diving back in manana with another, long-time OK friend…Steven Dalton, so it should all finally start sticking.

I believe it’s time for a Collective Council here in Los Angeles, CA (and beyond).

To that end I’m working on a new project but old idea (think Gathering of the Tribes, aka GoTT), something which I foresee benefiting all of the LA communities and others and am looking to get the word out to the various, key community leaders.

Below is an initial overview of the project. If anyone has any input on any of this, can suggest members, or wishes to get involved, please let me know.

Additionally, I see this expanding well beyond Los Angeles and our related communities at some point, as I often think big, on a global scale.

I’ve even worked on or discussed similar concepts with some of you out there before. I believe that this venture stands free and clear of anything else prior to this initiative and that any related ventures can serve some part in this. I am not looking to usurp anyone’s dreams or current ventures, but rather instead wish to connect and help strengthen them all, just as I wish to do with the community leaders and members here in LA (and beyond).

Many pieces are already in place or soon will be, to further fuel and catapult all of us to new realms of wonder and enlightenment. Some present pieces include:

Abundant Sugar, Amoration, Burning Man, Coachella, Creative Citizen, Dianovo, Empowerment Works, GLiving, GoTT, Green Nectarine, Green Sector, Growing Architecture, Hipgenesis, Lightning In A Bottle, Lucent Dossier, Moontribe, Mutaytor, Orangekids, Pocket Underground, Space Island, The Do LaB, The Sugar Shack, Tribe, Twitter, ToyShoppe Pro, WordPress, Words For The Many, Virgin Music Festival, YouTube, etc.

Official Description (subject to change):

You, the leading members/representatives from each of the major communities within the greater Los Angeles collective underground, are hereby cordially invited to join the Collective Council to help stimulate, educate and otherwise empower stronger bonds between each others organizations and the communities they represent.

I believe the time has come that each of your respective communities be brought together in a sacred and respectful manner to offer up each others strengths and wisdom to insure a healthier, wiser, safer and more protected collective community. From questions on business, to legal matters, to fundraising for projects, legal and health matters, to greater community outreach, we can all come to benefit from each others experience and wisdom for greater prosperity and evolution.

To that end I have begun several viral web initiatives including a tribe online to start connecting those that wish to play a part in this. For those who enjoy the micro-level of connectedness, a Twitter log has been initiated as well. You can find us online at these locations, more to follow soon:

http://tribes.tribe.net/collectivecouncil
http://twitter.com/thecollective
http://collectivecouncil.com

As a participating member to varying degrees, of a number of Los Angeles based collectives: Green Gurus, Green Sector, Mid-City Neighborhood Council, Moontribe, The Do Lab, Sugar Shack, etc. and as a maturing entrepreneur, Capricorn, and all around social architect if you will (those who know me well should understand this better) of collective bits, I’m confident I can help shape and lead a unifying body of consciousness to help council, develop, assist, and otherwise insure a stronger web of resources to be called upon as needed throughout all communities.

Should you wish to become active in this endeavor, I will greatly honor and appreciate you as a valued member and participant and take any suggestions, criticisms and all around council with the utmost respect and gratitude. All I ask is that you honor this vision with an equal amount of respect and formality, as this is an attempt to propel and unite each other into the unfolding universal flow and convergence that is now occurring and rapidly accelerating around us all.

I will be contacting many community members through the coming days and weeks to further shape these efforts. Plans are also loosely coming together for a first, formal meeting of interested parties.

I eagerly welcome your response, input and any questions that you may have.

Jedi Wright / Founder
The Collective Council
collectivecouncil [ @ ] gmail [ dot ] com

I was reminded by Adam Wiggins today that the annual Startup School is fast approaching.

I submitted my application this evening for the event here.

Looking forward to this and several other dot-com, marketing and startup events this spring.

Today I got confirmed for work on another event in what’s turning out to be an even busier summer of festivals than last year.

I’ll be working a job with The Do LaB for an event in Portugal this summer, so I’ll finally have a chance of seeing my sister who’s lived in Spain since 1999 (incidentally, the first time I ventured out here to Cali); we’ll also be working on some of the usual jobs this spring: Coachella and then a few weeks out from that, Lightning In A Bottle.

Then in addition to the summer Portugal trip we’ll be hitting up the 3rd annual Virgin Music Festival (great fun, our 2nd year and a great production job by Mitch Kirsch).

Then, well maybe a breather from travel and work before Burning Man or maybe I’ll just dive back into my own work, of which there’s never a short supply.

Anyway, looking forward to the camping, the team work thing, nature, travel, and all that wonderful jazz. Many pictures and stories to come as these events unfold…