I am eating an apple, while typing on an apple. That sounds a little redundant.

The past month has been so full of music, living, eating, learning, etc. I have been in Ghana, South Africa, Germany, Canada, and Uhmerikah.

The second to last concert I got to play before Leaving South Africa was for people living at a nursing home in Mamelodi. Music is something ancient and true. It is a way of connecting, a way of sharing. It is a lot of things that I feel cheesy trying to verbalize, but that I believe when I hear. Whatever music is, when I saw the smiles on those faces that day, I was truly thankful for the gift of music.

I was also thrilled to get to spend a day at a primary school. I went to classroom after classroom, singing, speaking and answering questions. It was an all around spectacular time.

The trip back to Uhmerikah was really something. Somebody must have been sitting around, thinking, I wonder how long we can make the trip back from South Africa! There was a good, long stop-over in Germany. I bought a day pass for the train and went around Munich. I asked the lady sitting next to me on the plane how to Germany, meaning how to get around and what to see. The flight attendant gave me a blanket to wrap around myself under my sweatshirt. I could speak enough South African slang that she figured I would freeze in -18°C.

She was right, it was a shock. But, however cold I was, this guy looked colder:

In Marienplatz, the fountain was building ice sculptures. It was a beautiful sight, but I didn’t get any good shots of it. Some guy tried to mug me while I was snapping this photo, so it’ll have to do the trick. The second you pull out a camera, you broadcast your foreign allegiance.

I feel like this post doesn’t say all that much. A whole universe of experiences has flown past, and I am left speechless.

I spent a month with amazing people in places both strange and familiar. Some of these people have worked in Mandela’s government, some have had fistfights over loaves of bread, because black eyes are better than starvation. Yesterday night, I stepped off a plane, today I sat in the first class of my final semester of university. It has been a whirlwind, but I think there to be no time to properly unwind.

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3, 2, and 1 are related to my life in a number of ways right now, no pun intended.

In the past 3 days, i had 2 concerts at nursing homes and 1 concert at a school, all here in townships in South Africa. i would love to write all about these. And share adorable pictures. In fact, i will do so either this monday or next.

Time for the big news: Ian and i will be agreeing to update our blogs each and every monday.

Another form of 3-2-1 that is in my life right now is the count-down to the plane launch tomorrow. It will be nice to get on board, eat, sleep and awake in Germany. I will arrive back in Los Estados Unidos just in time to watch people play football with their hands in some large bowl-like contraption. Ah, yes, the Superbowl.

For now, i leave you with these two photos. First is a rock balance. It was raining that day, up on the ridge above Pretoria.

As beautiful as i like to think my creations are–such as the simple stack of rocks above–i will never come lose to the beauty that has already been created in the world.

That’s all for now. I will update soon, once I am in video-upload-worthy internetville. I have quite the backlog of footage and stories to share. Stay well. Cheers.

“All that you touch, you change, and all that you change, changes you.”

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In the city, it is a different story. Terry got jealous of us. She had enough of staying home at the commune while we were out and about. So, on a trip to the National Botanical Garden, we made a plan.

Step One: put the pup in the cooler-box.

Step Two: survey the premises, scan for security.

Step Three: when steps one and two fail, resort to throwing your canine friend over the fence.

Somewhat related, ten time-zones away, a young dog-lover has learned the meaning of “Under Doggie.” Collin sent out this video of Baby Senya. One nice thing about the modern world and all this newfangled technology is the strange sense of connectedness made possible over great distances.

 

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“What’s that, Momma T?”

“You know, Coffee. Your vitamin C!”

We laughed around the breakfast table. This morning was my last breakfast with the Tshishonga Family for a couple of days. A friend of mine is picking me up this afternoon. We’ll have dinner at his commune tonight. Tomorrow, we’re heading up north to interview a couple that fled Zimbabwe with a herd of elephants.

Research is going remarkably well. Everyone here knows someone who fled Zimbabwe. Not only have I found all the information that I need to write my thesis this spring, but I have also been blown off my feet. The stories I have heard are astounding. The broken hearts still ache. The coffee, tea, beer and conversations I have gotten to share with so many beautiful people will never be forgotten. You can’t capture such with photos, but in this post I’ll share a couple of the pictures I’ve snapped on recent adventures. (Click a pic to enlarge it.)

As I mentioned, one of the guys I got to interview is a nature videographer. He got Graeme and I into a game park. The hut we got to stay in was awesome. The place was beautiful. The game drives were cool. Our own moonlight, headlight-less car-top explorations of the game reserve were exhilarating. In the sunrise, the ranger took us on a walk. He has trained the lions. They come right up to you and brush against your legs like house-cats. When they get too playful and chew on the hems of your clothes, he shouts, “Hey, kitty, too much!” He is smiling, but his hand is ready by the holster that holds his .44.

After the lions, and the research and adventures up north, I went to a beach house south of Durban with Emxee, Senny and Uncle Dan. It was refreshing. Porching is my favorite sport. We all became champion porchers those days. Those are the only 4 days of this trip that I have not met or talked to someone from Zimbabwe. When everything was hitting the fan, people fleeing the country were only allowed to leave with 500 Rand (less than $80). So, they drove as far as their gas tanks would get them. When their engines sputtered and ran dry, they pulled to the side of the road and settled, beginning new lives.

After those days, I met up with a group of students from Delaware that happen to be here at the same time. We went on a safari at Madikwe Game Reserve. Americans are a ridiculous lot. That place is beautiful.

We’ve been raised with the false concept that the sun rises and then sets.

But it never does:

The earth just falls around it.

In case you’re wondering, this is what an elephant looks like on a time-exposure in the night.

Days and nights came and went. “The white man has his watch, but the African has time.”

In case you’re wondering, this is what an elephant looks like in the sunrise.

So, there you have a couple of my recent photos and hints of the adventures and deeply moving interactions. More to come. I am enjoying the heck out of it.

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[Evangelina: click here to leave comments, haha]

I am about to dash out the door, and i still have to do my school email. I just wanted to briefly update here. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and my camera shoots at a rat of 30 frames per second, then this post will actually turn out to be quite extensive. Here is a video that we made up in Tzaneen, Limpopo. Graeme is the camera-climber-extraordinaire. John-lloyd and Courtney and i are the jammers. I hope you enjoy it.

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Tzaneen, South Africa. 

i am on a one-month trip. i promised the Undarguradyouate Reesurch Offace at my university at least two solid weeks of good research for my thesis in exchange for funding toward airfare. (i also find it amusing to misspell words that smart, accademuck peeple should take panes to write correctly).

the topic of my research is human displacement. i set out from my home to study how it must feel to be forced to leave your home. the goal of my research is to portray the human element that is erased by the magnitude of the statistics. the voices of the suffering people around the world cannot be heard above the hubbub caused by the automobiles, mp3s and fast food of the western world.

i find myself quite at home here. i know, the circumstances of my self-imposed place change are not at all comparable to forced displacement. in any case, i spent nearly half a year around these parts before. it is somewhat of a homecoming. i am fortunate to be staying with various friends and visiting places i used to frequent. i am running around the mountains in northern South Africa, interviewing people who have been forced to flee from the breadbasket-turned-bloodbath, Zimbabwe.

today, i met a videographer/director that works for Animal Planet, National Geographic and the BBC. i was interviewing him about border crossings, because he has spent time filming baboons in the nomansland between Zimbabwe and South Africa. it was a great talk. He invited me and my buddy to stay for a cookout on a deck over the pond. we stayed until nearly midnight. he will be taking us on friday to camp out in the bush and walk with lions in the sunrise.

Accra, Ghana.

on January the third, they told me in the Dulles international airport that i would not be able to secure a visa to get out and see Ghana on my nine-hour stopover in Ghana. no way. however, there was one wildcard that they did not know would come in so handy: the musician card.

i got on the plane, exhausted from a whirlwind week of tying up loose ends and celebrating beginnings. i ate my meal and fell asleep, ready to wake up and sit all day just one arbitrary border away from visiting a country on my Must-Visit List (about 180 to go).

the plane landed. i woke up. after a hot bus-ride to the airport terminal, an immigration officer pointed to a metal chair and told me to sit. he said no could i get out. the metal chair was not jiving well with my already over-sat backside. an airport worker who was clocking out and walking home did a double-take, staring at my guitar.

”you’re a musician?”

”yep.”

”how long you here for?”

”nine hours…”

”oh, you must see Ghana. speak with the man at that window. i will take you to the town for the day and bring you back before your flight.”

i thought about it. i asked her to watch my guitar for a moment while i dashed to the bathroom. i told her it was valuable as all get-out and then ducked around the corner, making sure to take what would be an obnoxiously long time for someone to use the toilet. i asked another airport worker if Heidi was a safe person. the answer being affirmative, i figured that if she and my guitar were still there when i returned, then it was a go. you see, i have to play up all the safety decisionmaking processes on these blog entries while i’m still away. after enough time has elapsed, i will tell all the exciting stories about jumping off things, climbing whatnot, getting chased, you know, the usual. worry not, none of that happened on the day in Ghana. it was a lovely time.

Heidi took me back to the airport in time to catch my plane to Joburg, SA. i got free first-class treatment on the flight cause i was a good sport about a few tiny things that are simply prone to happen on airlines. after dinner on that flight, i woke up, claimed my bag and walked off the plane into the South African morning.

the Tshishongas, an absolutely lovely family that has adopted me as one of them, picked me from the airport. around here, you don’t pick things and people UP, you simply pick them. i stayed with my family for a few days before heading up to the mountains to conduct a few interviews. speaking of ‘up,’ i have stayed up too late–big surprise–and you can consider yourself updated.

today is my birthday. that is mostly meaningless to me at this point. i have seen so much beauty that i sometimes forget what beauty is. life is such a celebration right now–and i feel so fortunate about everything–that i feel no need to celebrate myself on some certain day. i have not told anyone in these hills that it is my birthday. if you feel up to it, you can send me an email that i’ll read when i get to the net again: i would appreciate that. i am glad to be where i am. i am thankful for all. goodnight, goodmorning, or good-whatever-it-is-wherever-you-are.

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It has been too long since updating.

Anyhow, this time tomorrow, i’ll be getting on a plane in Ghana. In the morning, i’ll wake up in South Africa.

This post will be short. I have not packed yet, and i leave for Dulles International Airport in about 35 minutes. I just today unpacked my bag from being gone last week. Now, time to turn around and get out again.

Last week, my new CD came out. Tons of special people came over and helped celebrate this occasion. Today, the shipping department at Supermagic Studios was hard at work (see image below).

The lady at the post office told me to stay warm. I said, “I most definitely will!” I smiled and did not explain that i was about to jump on a plane for the “Country of Africa.”

Speaking of not explaining–that is what i must now do. I have to dash so i can throw some clean cloths in a duffle bag and cram my pillow in my guitar case. I’ll try to get to the internet somewhere to elaborate and update. Enjoy the snowy month of January.

Rarity is often used as a basis for judgment. The more rare something is, the more we tend to value it. Take, for example, gold. Historically, gold has been highly sought after. Yes, it has proven important in a few scientific experiments in more recent years, but it is doubtful that the conquistadores were slaughtering masses in order to fill their ships with gold, and laughing to themselves, “This stuff is great, it will surely help us to make great advances in understanding atomic structures!”

Wars used to be fought over salt. It was rare and difficult to collect. Our modern word, salary, is derived from a Latin word that the Romans used to describe the pay Roman soldiers received in order to procure salt. It was rare and expensive. Today, it is fifty cents a pound. We dump it by the truckload on our icy roads in the winter. No one cares. Rarity is a basis for judging value.

Deciding value based on rarity is a system predisposed to unhappiness. If something is esteemed for its scarcity, happiness will be much less accessible. Isn’t it simple? Doesn’t that make sense?

I love squirrels. There is one or two in practically every tree. I would enjoy seeing a buzzard soaring about in a thermal draft just as much as I would like seeing a bald eagle. I have recently been examining my motivation for assigning value. It is amazing what you find when you open up your own mind and start poking around.

Subconsciously, you make judgments based on scarcity. It is natural to want something you can’t have. That is an uncomfortable aspect that comes as part of the human condition. You may not even know that you think this way.

It is like a kid who is cranky all day and doesn’t know why until bedtime, when undressing he realized that he has had his underwear on backwards all day. When you realize it late in your life, you will look back and see the reason for all the discomfort. The sooner we can realize these things about ourselves, the better.

What if worth were based on something other than scarcity? We would be a lot happier.

Speaking of scarcity, I know I rarely update this blog. So, this post will be cramming together things that do not fit together, since so much has happened recently. In October, I was honored to sing at Mitchell Hall. Below is a video a friend shot of “The Frightened Rabbit Song.”

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i have been dwelling on how true those words are.

it has been quite a while since i have updated this blog. i apologize. this here update will be brief. in fact, it will

be more of a down-date, i should think. it’s hard to look forward right now, so i’d rather look backwards.

i found a music page i posted when i was 15 years old. i updated it when i turned 16, and then forgot the password. so, it lingers on as a digital time-capsule.

www.purevolume.com/shanepalkovitz

the songs that i posted on that page ring true today as well, although i would like to think that i could phrase those feelings more eloquently by now.

you should go to that link and listen to “hopes of life lately,” which i actually retitled “lately electric,” but that was in the postpassword times, so i couldn’t update it. i recorded that song upstairs, just singing to that tiny little dot that was a low-quality microphone in the old eMac.

the second song, “why so downcast?” is a live recording from a video camera. i performed it the day i wrote it, and it was not finished (cause is anything ever finished?), and Justin Weber played the djembe with me, having never heard it before.

and, in the vein of things remaining the same, i still sing all the time and i can’t stop writing. here is a video that Kwali and i made recently  out in Peacedale Preserve. the aim of the video was to be relaxing and natural, but you should have seen me, walking out there with camera equipment, microphones, headphones and whatnot, trying to balance it all and walk and sing and all that business.

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The Land of Eb is a narrative feature filmed in documentary style. The team is currently finishing up post-production and submitting to film festivals.

The plot of the movie draws heavily from real-life events of the Marshallese community on the Big Island of Hawaii. These people live a marginalized life in a land that many consider to be paradise. Many of the characters portrayed in the film are actually played by the individuals that inspired the story, and much of the shooting was on location. Thus, the film has a certain sense of authenticity.

Williamson describes The Land of Eb by saying, “It involves a Marshallese guy who finds out that he has cancer again and he decides not to tell his family this time, cause he doesn’t want them to be upset at all and he doesn’t want to go through chemo therapy and all the things that he had been through before. So, he decides to work hard and make sure to pay off his property and provide for his family before he dies.”

The film is full of life, portrayed in vibrant colors and overlaid with a rich original soundtrack. The score for the film was written and performed by Daniel Nietzthere; also featured is a song played on ukulele and sung by Marshallese girls from the community. The film is a dramatic representation of every-day reality for a population of approximately 3,000 Marshallese people that live in Hawaii. The writers, including John Hill and Andrew Williamson, did an excellent job of presenting deep issues as a backdrop and a lively narrative as the main plot. By choosing this approach, an audience will be engaged in the storyline and without feeling preached to, they will be entertained by the story, while at the same time learning about the plight of the Marshallese commnity.

Williamson says, “I hope [The Land of Eb] finds its audience and that it can bring some sort of attention to another peoplegroup that are here in the United States and that are struggling.” This hope is not far-fetched. The project is very high quality in all regards. The team has been meticulously tweaking every detail for a long time now. All these efforts are paying off as the feature comes together. The traditional folktales (one of which inspired the title of the film), music and culture all weave together and blossom to give a good representation of the Marshallese life in modern Hawaii.

At every stage, the Marshallese people were invited to join in the production of this film. Williamson and his crew have been working together with the people for two years and counting. Many of the community members, such as Jonathan Jackson, who plays the main character in The Land of Eb, have taken an interest in film-making. Andrew Williamson and other members of the Kona Film Group have been giving them instructions on movie-making. They intend to continue working together on other projects in the future.

As for The Land of Eb, Williamson concludes, “It’s a good story that people can be engaged in, a story about a human being that we can all relate to.”

Watch the trailer above.

[or go to the website for further information: www.thelandofeb.com]

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