wilderness survival...

you know what your problem is?...

...you don't see enough of this...

...or this

i spent the weekend in the Adirondacks with the patrol. In between the canoeing, the fire, the exploring, the Mentors and some patrol spats, we did it like we always do—Forever Wild. Thrilla, K-Luv and i took the 5 hour trek to Indian Lake, leaving the city and its ghosts behind. You know what I'm talking about, the bustle, the bullshit, the stress...

we all met via the Boy Scouts so many years ago, along with the bastard and Jonny Airplanes. We still feel the need to work and act as a patrol. To explore the outdoors. To challenge ourselves, our bodies and minds. Upon returning and reconnecting with the world i read a reply from the Judge after i had told him where i had been. He asked if i was on a spirit journey. The Judge is a big Jim Morrison fan, but i guess he wasn't far off. A trip up to the woods will always get you thinking...

it occurred to me overlooking the wilderness before us that we have it pretty good. Not the three of us, all of us. This is where we are from. This is what we are. Four elements. Fire, water, earth and air—the rest is gravy. Don't forget that, we don't need anything else. Everything else is an extravagance. We are not our football—an over-jacked, over-hyped excuse to act like an animal, and that's just the fans. Don't get me wrong, i like football, i'm liking the way the Jets started their season, but i don't like where football is going, sexual assault, self-inflicted gunshots, vehicular manslaughter, greed, greed, and greed. If its not the owners its the players, or ESPN—they are killing the game, all of them, and you are all a party to it. Enjoy the lockout people, its coming, there's a lot of money out there, but each side wants to take it from one another. When they are quibbling and squabbling in two years remember that it is your money they are fighting over...

we are not out Video Music Awards, and thank the stars in the sky i'm not Kanye West—that emperor needs some new clothes. And Beyonce, honey, i've seen you before, your Diana Ross and if you keep believing you're some kind of queen out there you'll end up a hop and a skip from looney bin just like Diana. Tat goes for all of you out there, you're all an embarrassment out there. When you lose your voice, your assistants, your fame, what do you have? There's a great line by Vincent Dinoffrio (before he lost his shit) in The Player, he says to Tim Robbins' Griffin Dunne, 'I can write, what can you do?!' Well, yeah, i can do that. I can also start a fire while Thrilla catches us our meal, K-luv will cook it up after he finishes up on a shelter. We may not live forever, but we'll live long enough to see you fade away. Music sucks these days, when you have to do research in order to find something you might like, that's just too much work. Stop acting like you guys are rewriting Sgt. Peppers or Pet Sounds, Love Supreme, Burnin' and Lootin', Crossroad Blues, Hank Williams, Beethoven. Its pop music without the pop. Your fucking arrogance is insulting...

you are not two building that crumbled into the Battery. Leave it behind, its only there to antagonize you, and keep you wounded and scared. i normally put a particular picture up from my profile on facebook. i took at Union Square some years ago, a spray painted stencil on a stone that reads 'Obedience is not Patriotism.' It applies here. Believe in conspiracies or believe in your government, but don't let the pain of that day shackle you into thinking you have live this way. You think your free because you see the light—because they say where the light is but you should turn around and see where the light is really coming from. Let all of that disappear so the exploitation of you 'patriotism' will stop. That will be the real tribute to the fallen...

on trail or better said the lake, i made a deal with the devil. Thrilla can be a chore sometimes. We got into a ruckus about time management while fishing on the lake, an hour away from the camp site. Tucked inside a shaded cove we got into what was best for the patrol, there was work to be done back at the site, wood cutting, tending to a warming fire for the evening, food prep, and the like. Long story short, we acted like assholes, the both of us, and after screaming and hollering K-Luv began to mediate only to have Thrilla jump off the boat onto an island, push the boat off back out to the lake. It was then that i decided to what was best for the patrol. I sat back, shut my mouth and wait for Thrilla to end his tantrum. He got back to the boat and we humped it back to camp. It was no easy task. Handling egos never is. Its a recurring theme lately. It seems i'm running into egos everywhere i turn right now. Well, fuck it, i learned long ago in the Boy Scouts that its all about the patrol. Its the only way to survive. Whether you like it or not. That's all i'm about...

scouting has taught me a lot about how to treat this planet, how one is no more important than the other. To be inquisitive, to challenge yourself and others. That's all i'm trying to do here...

you know what you're problem is?...

you think i'm talking shit...

nah...

its just that scouting spirit in my motherfucking soul...