I haven’t posted anything on here in a lil bit. As usual, I’ve been too bizzy too blog, but I hope that I have some more time this week to write up my thoughts.

I went with two groups of friends, the DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency and the Rhythm Workers Union, to an antique book store in southwestern Virginia for a poetry & drumming weekend retreat. While I love the form of music known as Drum & Bass, I am not a huge fan drumming on a djembe. As a dancer, I prefer the music to have more substance than a mere 4 count, which tribal drumming is based on. I like to have at least an 8 count to dance to. Tribal drumming in its essence is simply too primitive for my tastes, yet I still learned the basics of drumming over the weekend. I also wrote and performed some of my poetry. I felt I was able to practice performing my poetry with a very receptive audience. Although I don’t have my freestyle down yet, I really really want to work on that (along with breakdancing).

I had one major epiphany while in the antique bookstore over the weekend. It was that no matter how much time I spend learning, I would never reach a knowledge ceiling. I mean it was absolutely surreal partying around thousands of people’s life work. I felt like Dr. Faustus in an infinite library of knowledge. I went and snooped around for hours and hours discovering so much. Antique Roadshow would have a heyday in this place!

I ended up taking home a 1969 U.S. Air Force Manual on Survival. It shows what fruits, berries, and grasses one can eat as well as how to create a sextant to track your location. Since Bush was reselected, I’ve taken up an odd survivalist mentality, and I feel this book adds a nice dynamic to my emergency information resources.

In the end, I felt like I am closer to a lot of people I worked with in the planning of and execution of the counter-inaugural activities. I look forward to working with them all in future endeavors around the DC area, and hopefully go back to the bookstore for another retreat.