Walking towards the Dominical Sunset

The California summer is long and chock full of music festivals. But not long enough to accommodate the supply and the demand for all the creative talent and hunger we have to offer… and have to have.

And so we expand. New sunnier place to make more real the true endless summer. We have found Costa Rica.

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In my hostel I really splurge and get the $30 private room. All the signs are in English.

Rolling through these Barrio streets of San Jose, CR, in a private shuttle I see a very old looking woman looking out hopelessly behind bars fro her cramped car park. I see a small dog likewise behind bars in a small porch cactus garden. I see lots mostly empty besides weeds, lots and lots of trash, and a human or two who seem to be picking through it. we cruise on by and onto the highway.

An official looking street sign shows us the exit for the Best Western and the Denny’s. We pass the Tica Bus stop that I could take for a more affordable and greater adventure. I won’t want to bust out my laptop to write this article there, it is more comfortable in a party shuttle full of westerners. Oops, I mean northerners. Gringos.

A truck passes by with flammable stickers on the back, a small door open on the side through which I see someone’s legs. Shit is hot. We close the windows and wait for the shuttle’s next leg. I start to wish I had some more coke and a cold beer. Soon enough Duke, soon enough.

I think for a moment of the Food Network host ( NAME ) who is so greatly and transparently humbled upon his visit to Nicaragua, realizing the ulra decadence of hosting a food television show as he sees locals picking through huge fields of garbage scavenging for food.

It seems the promoters of Envision are well aware of the dichotomy here and work to serve the local community, Last year ( SOURCE ) they contributed greatly to the town of Dominical where the event was held.

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La Pura Playa Nueva

Looking at Facebook post in the months leading up to the event, chatter rivaled even the Bay’s Holy Grail. Burningman. Given Envision happens 6 months before The Burn, falling almost rig tup on the Burnal Equinox, this is just adjustments for the relative current enormity of said events.

The Bay Scene is curious about Envision, about Costa. Something new with a literal playa, what perhaps may not be understood is that unlike our beloved playa, we are not entering an empty wasteland (I mean the actual space, no offense to the fine people of Gerlac, NV) but we are entering a land with its own people with their own traditions, customs, and language.

Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” comes on the radio and I have to chuckle at the irony. uno dos tres…

Well Costa Rica is not a land that needs to be saved, (we pass a Walmart at this point) but it seems they do enjoy a significant income from tourism and outside interests. They play well with others.

***

The conversation inside the ride turns to festivals. One girl, form Boston, stumbled upon Envision when serendipitously misremembering and searching for the Identity festival. What she found was Envision, and called her boyfriend to tell him they had tickets to the party and a plane trip to Costa and they should work on getting passports. true story.

one friend in the van confesses his intuitive aversion to coachella. he only wants to remember opts name so he can remember to avoid it.we talk about the merits of Electric Forest at Rothdale which I’ve not attended, he found it a coincidence that a waitress outside a show featuring bassnectar had dated him.

homie had just happened to be in costa rica because he wanted to be there anyways with his whirlgirlfriend. they extended their tickets 4 days and made arrangements to chill.

when i first came here i felt a calling and before i knew it was happening i knew that it should. i had heard about the infamous Manifosto Gathering aka Manifestival in Montezuma. I finally heard Envision was happening and planned my trip around it. There was talk at Envision last year about a DJ / Yogini friend throwing a Montezuma gathering the weekend after, but I haven’t heard anything since, and I would like to think I’d be invited so I didn’t look further into it.

i notice a subconscious stiffness in our driver when i play a straight dub beat. he seems to loosen with the moombahthon. I had a dream quite recently that my mother was driving me past the house i grew up in and through the windows of my old bedroom i could see posts on the wall declaring “MOOMBAH!” and i felt comforted whoever was there was into that kind of music and though about contacting him about DJ stuff before i woke up.

*

conversation turns to sound design, careers. i realize that i’m taking time off while the other shoe drops. glad to be taking a shot at this journalisticness.

*

I'm on the top of the world looking down on creation...

but first the place needs to become real. and it will.
here is a start: http://www.donnerland.com/

Why music matters.
Turns out, when people say music changed them, they really mean it! Music does change our minds and bodies. Thre are a lot of different resons why, but what it comes down to is, we humans don’t get enough of pitch and rhythm.

Bottle from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

BIG ROAR FOR THE YEAR OF THE TIGER!