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Okay maybe Tool wasn’t there last weekend at the latest Alex Grey / CoSM fundraiser but the next best thing to that was their music and larger than life banners of Grey’s art.

The event was held downtown at Club 740, which had apparently once played host to Charlie Chaplin and Prince.

The venue itself was pretty cool; another hidden gem in the muck of downtown LA (been living and working there for far too long…). As it was moved last minute from Crash Mansion, things got started late and Alex Grey seemed (perhaps) forced to rush through his presentation, which included a slew of slides, including some great renderings of the new Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, along with his talks flavored with the concept of “Anthropocosm”.

He also played one of Tools videos (which got drowned out in bass for nearly half the vid), which was cool, but perhaps better suited for another place and time (disclaimer: I absolutely love their music but short of a live performance in public, especially in a mostly DJ-music setting, is kind of vibe-killer I think).

Anyway, gonna’ wrap this up short for now, today’s kind of low point for me and I don’t want to give the wrong impression: Any Alex Grey event is well worth attending, especially if it’s your first time. So if you get the chance, check him out.

I’ll post some pics later on, for now here’s one of Tristan later on in the evening, while waiting for Treavor to come on. We had a lot of fun with the old staircase deco and her new birthday coat from Shrine:

As I think back over the last 15 years of opportunities I’ve experienced in watching and learning from great masters, I realize how fortunate I’ve been to learn from, work and train with, and come to know the people I’ve met along the way.

In some cases, I’ve tangled one-on-one in the dojo with internationally acclaimed Vittorio Carelli (Carelli Design and Carelli International) or in the fields of hard grass with the most commanding of martial arts instructors, with Sensei Gregory Hofler (5th Dan, Chairman Tozai Aikido Assoc. & founder, Itamar tactical martial art); while in others I’ve practiced the art of design, customer relations and branding in my small, hometown with locally known entrepreneurs (though equally intelligent and knowledgeable) such as John Flemming (JAM Screen Printing) or Tim Reeser (Ghosttour.com); and most recently with Adam Wiggins (founder of TrustCommerce, Distinctivefabric.com, Bitscribe, and now his latest venture…Heroku).

Still others have included some equally great thinkers and motivators such as Ryan Wartena (co-founder of Nano Sol Systems), Elizabeth Marley (Architectural Consultant w/Farmlab), Blue Cobalt (founder of Dianovo.com), Jim Strickler (founder of RedRox, Cragmaker and the Bouldertron), Garo Kuyumcuovic (founder Rooftop Promotion), and Tristan Edwards (who continues to teach me the meaning of commitment, something I’ve been known to struggle with in most area’s).

Also, a number of my fellow hometown friends, school mates and siblings have met with varying degrees of success and encompass a number of really great qualities as musicians, artists, designers and entrepreneurs: Dede, Jesse and Josh Flemming (founders of The Do LaB), Brent and Chad Hurley (YouTube), Daniel Rattigan (co-founder French Broad Luscious Chocolates), Pierre Pressure (ringleader of The End of The World Tour Circus), JP Ettel and Charlie Fillman (expert laborers and craftsmen), Douglas Reeser (partner in Green Gurus) Ben Wright, Amanda Jayne, Gregory Johnson, Josh Maddox (co-owner of Distinctivefabric.com), and many others along the way.

Each and every one of these ladies and gents are shining examples of what ambition, determination and hard-work can accomplish and I am profoundly proud of all their accomplishments to date and, am equally honored to have known each and every one of them, even if was just to go at it for a few hours on the mat once a week or growing up in attendance together, at the same school.

I just hope that I have or can at some point, return the favor to them all, in this life or another. And, as another friend Ethernight, points out:

“The people you choose to surround yourself with define you.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Insanity is perhaps a better way to describe my life at this juncture, or at least what I seem to be feeling a good deal of.

Too much going on…so man, is it tough to focus on just school, with everything else on my plate; it seems almost impossible. I have so much more respect for my mother who went back to school while raising her six children, working 2-3 jobs at any one time, finding time to date, and still graduating Magna Cum Laude!

Ah, and now an epiphany into why I so often find myself in similarly distressing and over-taxing situations. It’s almost as if I’ve got to keep the schedule she kept while raising me to do…what, I don’t know, but there it is; ignorance really must be bliss.

Something to mull over in all my spare time I guess.

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Update:

What I neglected to mention previously was that in addition to full-time school, my two companies, and a few other things (best left off-site for now), I recently began running in local politics. As I’m running unopposed as the at-large rep for LA’s Mid-City Neighborhood Council, I’ll most likely land the seat, but a vote from anyone actively living or working in the area still wouldn’t hurt!