I developed tinnitus at a young age, coinciding around the time my dad took me to my first monster truck rally. I was around five years old. From that age till the moment I learned of soundless chambers and the impossibility of silence, I dreamt of hearing absolutely nothing, and thought that I once had the opportunity and had lost it by way of disability. Still, despite that, it's a fantasy of mine to find the most quiet place I can, where I could hear the next best thing: almost nothing.

And it's that fantasy, partly, which has brought me here to Lasqueti Island, a place without centralized power, highways, a population over 400, or any police for that matter

Of course though it's not as quiet as that space in my dreams (though moving my tent away from the bullfrog pond helped), it has a sort of mental silence. Not that my brain has shut up, heaven forbid, but it is simpler. I wake up. Meditate. Have breakfast. Work (usually skinning fir trees, kitchen stuff, moving lumber, etc), meditate, have lunch, work, meditate, have dinner, read a bit and then pass the fuck out. Sometimes there are variations but not many.

I came here to learn how to dance a new dance and change up my boring predictable life a bit. I was worried this place would be populated by new age weirdos, the bad kind, and maybe soon it will be but the owner is sarcastic, down to earth and maybe even a bit cold at first. Awesome. My co-interns are all great too, none of them obnoxious, which is a great relief.

The studio itself is a work of genius. I tried to make a video of it but I'm an awful camera man so whatever. I don't know how it's standing, or how it's stood for more than a few months, but it's pretty freakin amazing.

It's almost too idyllic, the other day me and the others were jamming Leonard Cohen and just cleaning but it was so nice. But it's not perfect, I have my fair share of bruises, cuts, scrapes, etc. And there are meat animals on the property which I think sucks.

There are a mama goat and her kids here too. The mama, Nema, loves headscratches. Her kids less so. I love them.
(UPDATE: The cutest one, William, has gone missing. He probably fell off a cliff. I have a vid of him doing a cute thing, maybe the last cute thing he did, but I don't know how to upload it. The other was eaten (by humans))

The dance is weird. It's called contact improv and it's very new to me. I've only had a few classes but when it works it feels amazing, very playful and fun, the high you get from it is pretty incredible. When it doesn't work it feels like random rolling around, like I'm being way to intimate with someone I don't know for no good reason. As a touchy person who is shy with touch, and as someone who likes to dance more than anything else, it seems like a pretty good outlet. I'm pretty jazzed on it.

I've only been here for a short while but so much has happened, or at least it feels like it cuz it's so different from my previous life + island time. I'm adapting to it quite well though, who needs modern amenities outside of a home theater system and drinkable water?

I'm learning a lot. From inner space stuff to a dance miles away from any dance I'm used to, to axe handling, to begrudgingly accepting that maybe, to realizing that maybe, just maybe, the first black eyed peas album is actually pretty good. And I'm here till Sept, I'm sure I'm gonna learn a whole lot more once things get into full swing.

Sometimes tho' it's really quiet and I still try to find that space with no sound. It's involuntary at this point. Haven't found it yet but we're getting close.