Chris Murdoch and Isis From the Siddhartha show, this guy is Chris Murdoch and a great contact juggler. Isis was a tantalizing Kamala with her hybrid of bellydance and other sorts of sensuousness. Chris as Siddhartha brings back the riches required to be a friend and lover of the lovely courtesan, and is no longer a dusty Samana in nothing but a loin cloth. See, Siddhartha looks quite sharp here and Kamala is impressed. Siddhartha is now a citizen of Samsara and after a number of years becomes a bit of a playboy and gambler... see what women make you do ;) actually she was his truest of friends and yeah, she was worth sticking around in Babylon for awhile...photo: Diane Smithers  Siddhartha at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen The Storytyme Collective had their first show at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens last Friday. We presented our adaptation Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse through an inter-weaving of music, circus and dance. The setting of the gardens gave us a magical and living world to tell this beautiful story that ultimately leads to the wisdom and wonder of being in tune with nature. We have been asked to do another showing at the gardens but the Collective is leaning towards mid-November for our next showing and Vancouver weather will not likely permit a very dry telling of this show outside! I will introduce you properly to the whole collective....when I'm back from Burning Man, which I should be packing for actually... Oh and the new album is shaping up very nicely. I was recording earlier this week and having a blast with all the nice sounds we can capture at Profile studios - one block away from my home! On to packing!Leaving Samsara Photo by Diane Smithers  Oregon Country Fair July 9-11, 2010 Olivia Delacruz, Bucky and Doug Abrams at Front Porch Friday AfternoonWhat most struck me about the fair, other than the occassional peacock feather and parade of painted bosoms, was the kindness of this community that gathers under the embrace of the forest. I was camped with the Spoken Word family and would wake up every morning to the sounds of children and music playing in our shadey living room. I'd get up early even though I'd stay up until 5am every night, and I'd practice yoga and jam with my new family over coffee. Then I'd set out with my guitar over my shoulder to wander the paths and play the gigs that Doug had arranged for me at Front Porch, Spirit Tower, Energy Park and, most exciting of all, at Main Stage for Saturday's midnight show. (I will be getting a sweet video of the performance soon!) Throughout the fair were hand-made and US-made crafts of all sorts - leatherwork, carnival masks, organic clothes, pottery, musical furniture, geez anything you could imagine - and the food here was off the hook! But to be honest I couldn't eat as much as would have liked because it was so incredibly hot and I was running mostly on the positive energy of this place. There are a ton of hippies here, but also a lot of families, kids and young adults. The performances ranged from bluegrass to hip hop, reggae to gypsy music, circus to spoken word, and many folks busk on the side of the paths that wind through the fair. Every evening at 7pm the fair closes and a marching band sweeps through, but the volunteers, performers, and crafters stay on to party until the early morning. Each night around 1pm I would make my way to the Ritz, a beautiful open air sauna where everyone is naked and some band plays in front of a large fire pit. In the actual sauna people sing together anything from old hymnals, to the Beatles, to favorite hippy singalongs. Going to this place every night is probably what allowed me to function on so little sleep! I am in withdrawal I must say, I loved the fair and the people there way more than I had expected and am excited to go back next year and the next and the next! For those who donated at the Energy Park Show: Thank you! I forwarded your generosity to the brave Burmese journalistic efforts of the Democatic Voice of Burma:  aloha nui loa! Just spent the last week on the Big Island Hawaii, as usual it has been just splendid. Lots of yoga and lots of music. Catching up with the folks and friends on the island. This was at Kiholo Bay on a silver bleached driftwood finding new ways to not fall on my face. I'm about to head out to Oregon Country Fair to play at my first festival. Psyched for it! much love bucky  This was recorded live at the Railway Club and the story was filmed around Vancouver. The song is about the being as unburdened as possible when we embark on a romance, about being as free and in the moment with our lover as possible. Rosalee Yagihara did all the filming and editing, while I worked on the audio. We spent an afternoon with Alexandra Rodrigues and Rosalee's son Solen, cruising around the train station and downtown getting our shots. This is as DIY as it gets! visit Rosalee's site: sumitramedia.wordpress.com 
 The Apocalypse is Not Guaranteed - First Home VideoI have started recording this song with my buddy Rob Fillo. My plan is to sell it to raise funds for a local BC organization called Living Oceans. Details to follow!  Jokers Always Crush LiveThis was from the Spring Fete CD release party for Latest Waking. Kirk Moses and I have started planning a music video for the album version of the song. It'll be an intense metaphor for the hyper-neuroticism of our minds and society in this Babylonian age. To me the Joker is an archetypal force that operates both within and without the structures of civilization to reveal the ridiculousness of ourselves and our society, and undermine & weaken the establishments in our minds and in our world. It's also just a fun song.  Mistakes and Victories Live at the Spring FeteMy string broke in this song, perfect! I ended up doing handstands for five minutes while the soundguy changed my D string. If I remember correctly Isis was counting for me...I can do better than 11 seconds honestly!  Give Up the FrightI had a little show the night after the epic show with Chinese table harp (zheng) player Vi-An on Thursday April 8th. I had to nap in the afternoon and had time to pick Andraya Starnino up to sing with me. It was a humble little affair and just the die-hard fans came out for a second evening of music. I have been feeling the Jester archetype strongly influencing me these days, stronger than ever.  
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