Suckled by the ever rhythmic and ultra-staccatonated electronic sounds of my most recently favorite techno, I sit and wait as my journey into tomorrow begins. Its funny how intent, combined with action can plant seeds that blossom into experience and an lead to almost-expected adventure. I had planned for this window in time to be filled with views of Tokyo or Osaka, Kyoto or maybe even Hokkaido. But instead, the universe and its strange ways interrupted my actual intent, forcing my journey into tomorrow to redirect. I am now waiting to board a 777 to Taipei.
--It all began as an intent to visit a place and culture I have long admired for no clearly understood set of reasons. The Japanese: the people, the language, the behaviors, all speak to me on some intangible level. Almost like part of me -- an important part of who I am -- is, or has always been, Japanese.
--At the time of initial intent to visit Japan, there was enough steady in my life to justify laying plans for a month-long trip to the country of my dreams. Alas, the universe and its many tendrils of chaotic surprise and harmonious hidden agendas, conspired to bend my path through its labyrinth of personal growth and spiritual understanding.
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A new, and previously un-imaginable, work opportunity sought me out; an opportunity I could not, with any semblance of self-respect or consideration for my ultimate goals (be they clear or ambiguous), turn down. The money was less than half of my previous income, but the work resonates with my soul, and most importantly: IT ... FOUND ... ME. I didn't have to look for this work. Because of what I do and who I am, it came to me, and I welcomed it with open arms.
--While this new work fills me with gladness and regularly leaves me feeling fulfilled, the lowly income easily laid waste to my well intended Japanese travel plans.
--However, the intent for the Japan journey was so voluminous and rightful, and the action of taking the underpaid-but-soulful job so pure and true to my spirit, that the harmonic and resonant result was a slightly different nodal step across the dateline and into the nightlife of tomorrow.
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I am being paid now, if not very much, to travel to Taipei to install an electronic artwork at ART TAIPEI, Taiwan's longest running international festival of art. For about 5 hours, this coming Wednesday, I will push a few screws, plug the art in, turn it on, adjust it, and then I have 7 days free to discover Taipei in a manner not typically available to the average tourist.
--For many years I have been inexplicably compelled to create and manipulate sound with digital and analog devices: compelled to a degree that I now build my own synthesizers and other devices with which I alter and create sound waves.
There is no question that my pursuit of sound manipulation (or its pursuit of me, I should say) has helped to bring me to this confluent nexus of departure from today. My contacts from aural networking and time-in-situtronic have coalesced into the form of an insider guide to Taipei's underground electronic music scene.
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-- A friend of a friend, Gary, has offered, during my 8-day stay, to introduce me to the players in the scene: the possibilities are making my imagination tumble....(where's that dramamine...?...).
--As the plane departs, I find a certain peace falling over me. Like a blanket of calm anticipation, it warms my oblongata.
--The interesting aspect of a flight from SF to Taiwan; if you leave during the day, your path follows the never-setting-sun...but you don't arrive until tomorrow.the flight is literally a 'journey into tomorrow: a time travel experience that allows me to return home yesterday. Its a bit of a paradox, I know, but conceoptually fascinating, and I hope this concept shapes my saunter through a land of temples and ultra-modern technology.
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The singular drawback to the masterful pursuit of aural manipulation -- a drawback that rears its ugly head when one is in uncontrolled public places like an airplane, a cinema, or places that allow children -- is an ultra-sensitivity to sound that one develops as a result of said pursuit.
