Otis Funkmeyer, The Ph.D. of Popping

So tonight was my first Muay Thai class. Muay Thai is the most bad-ass Thai kickboxing on the planet. Before taking the class, I had never been punched before. I had never taken a hit. I was a little bitch boy pussy bitch. Something like that. I have had such issues with rage all my life. Feeling like anger was a bad thing. Feeling like I should be more spiritual. I practiced tai chi and meditation and yoga. Never anything crazy brutal like this. The class was awesome. Great conditioning and we were hitting things and fighting right away. So I’m well on my way to becoming a bad ass which is of course the goal of this endeavor. An ass-kicking machine. Soon enough, I’ll have to step into the ring…… WHOA

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The days go by fast and furiously as we approach the event horizon of permanent, unavoidable, incorruptible now.

The days seem dark from the perspective of the crumbling systems but the future beckons us forth, into the unknown, into a symbiosis with
creation itself.

I find my own life, the only perspective I can fully know, becoming increasingly dreamlike, as previously “crazy” synchronicities become de rigeur and it seems like all systems go, warp speed ahead most of the time.

As I settle back into this eternal journey that I had spent 26 years forgetting I was on, I breathe sigh after sigh of relief. They really like me. I’m really OK. This is actually going to work out just fine.

And then it’s on to the serious business of future creation. Of bringing the ever-intertwining serpents that seem to populate my brain into 3D form. Because the vision for humanity that I see evidence for building all around me is so powerful, so contagious, so damn fun that you can bet your mama’s life that it’s what I came to do.

The documentary “Meet the Funkmeyers” that screened this past weekend was a smash success and was the audience favorite. Hundreds of people came up to us afterwards with such open hearts thanking us for
existing. It was truly… dreamlike. Since then I have begun getting approached around town by people who saw the film and am thus enjoying my first real taste of stardom. I quite enjoy it and I intend more, and more, and more. We’ve got a planet to transform here!

You can watch it for now at www.elevateexperience.com and yes you do have to install a plugin (ech!).

Aside from that, the outpouring of the film was so great that we have followup projects in the works already with bona fide Hollywood types. I feel like the Beverly Hillbilly.

Anywho. Ask and act and It. Is. Given.
Live the dream! Jump off the cliff! Destiny awaits! The future beckons! And you are it!

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

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hello my loves
It’s been a while as usual since I wrote a big long letter about life and the adventures it’s taken me on, so I figure Valentine’s day’s night (not too many chances to get double-astrophe-s’s) is a great time to feel the love and share it with you all.

Too bad for you though. Because I feel a little crappy. Life has thrown me quite a curveball over the past 6 months or so, with some big highs and big lows and many slices of humble pie and a lot of mystery that has made me think, wow, life is way more mysterious than I thought it was.

I seriously thought, last time I wrote you, that I had figured life out in a way. I guess that was probably the crux of the issue to begin with. Perhaps too much certainty makes life go HAH! Either way, I write you now with a slightly furrowed brow, wondering what the hell this rollercoaster ride *IS* that I signed up for.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

Anyway, first things first. I’ll try to sum up a lot of stuff real quick-like for the scanners and skimmers amongst you. I have a wonderful lover and am in the longest relationship I have ever been in. Our one year anniversary was precisely one week ago. I went to Burning Man. I moved away from Los Angeles and am living in Willamsburg, Brooklyn, land-of-the-hip-and-the-cool, of whose ranks I have not felt so much a part. My dance group Elastic Illusion done blew up and we all went our separate ways, I have put my eggs in the street performing basket, I have realized that the only game in town for me is consciousness transformation and sharing love and spirituality, I just did a living statue gig tonight at a bar and realized (again) I really don’t like bars or alcohol. Let’s see what else. I did go homeless for sometime between 7 and 10 days and it was really at that point that my whole life blew up. I thought it was gonna be easy and it was anything but. I did a 10-day silent meditation retreat after christmas that was very profound but that stillness feels somewhat far away at the moment. I have gone even further into the deep end with all the alien stuff and channeling and nature-of-reality-is-way-crazier-than-we-are-collectively-imagining-right now. I have learned a lot more about video production and motion graphics and graphic design. My girlfriend VV is currently visiting my mom in Maine so I am living by myself for the first time in my life and I am dead broke, more dead broke than I’ve ever been, which of course adds to the furrowed brow thing (I must say though, that when you’re dead broke, you REALLY get to see abundance in action, cuz food and support just keeps popping up seemingly out of thin air). I have reconnected with Jews since coming to New York and realized (again) I love Jews..

and oh yah, I have recently realized that in so many ways, for my ENTIRE LIFE I have thought that anything I do, especially artistically, that is in any way unique or original, is bad. It’s like I’ve found a whole new wellspring of low-self-esteem and self-hatred and lack-of-self-acceptance to mine (like dig, not mine like yours). But! I also know that since fertilizer is made of shit, this is ultimately a good thing, but the furrowed brow doesn’t seem to buy it!

AHHH! Well, that felt good to be all honest like that and not just be chipper and act like it’s all good. I mean, it IS all good, but it’s a BITTER sort of all good, rather than a sweet one. Speaking of which, I am also 15 days into a 30-day no sugar experiment, which is surprisingly awesome and revealing. That sugar stuff is CRACK I tell you. I had no idea til I cut it out. After telling some friends about it, they helped me expand the idea, and I’m going to do 1 30-day experiment per month from now on. Next month is one yoga class a day. I have spent so much time (like 7 years now) trying to become flexible through meditation and energy work, I figured, might as well try the way you’re SUPPOSED to do it and actually STRETCH everyday! And speaking of that, I am still doing my daily sun salutations and am up to 3 per day now. This is making my body look sexier and more defined, which is nice in that Western-culture-intense-vanity-coupled-with-debilitating-insecurity-sort-of-way.

In addition to this, since I’ve come to New York, I have been taking a lot of classes. I took a 5-day intensive “Drawing on the RIght Side of the Brain” drawing class, and realized drawing is a lot more math than magic. I am taking popping dance classes and voguing dance classes and African dance classes, a beatbox class, and 2 kung fu classes per week.

And the funny thing is, I still feel like I’m not doing anything. That furrowed brow is not impressed by my list here. Well, maybe at least YOU will be impressed.

I’ve read all these books and learned all these things over the years now and I think the furrowed brow is there partially because it’s sinking in to me that this little rollercoaster ride we call life isn’t really headed anywhere in particular. I’m accumulating all these checkmarks naively thinking that it’s adding up to something, but it keeps hitting me that it ISN’T HEADED ANYWHERE. It is what it is. The only REAL thing about it is my actual EXPERIENCE of it. This is most certainly WHY all the saints and sages are constantly preaching that present moment mumbo jumbo. Cuz time is a god damn invention. And so are DAYS. This one being numbered 14 and the next one 15. It gives you this sense of progression. And at least at this moment, the coaster seems to just go in a big circle, smiling (or is that a smirk?) all the while.

I guess that will serve as my little rant on life for this issue and I will go back to updates.

So the thing is, the real reason this furrowed-brow-metaphor-that-is-actually-happening-as-I-write-this keeps coming up is because of the street performing thing. Part of the reason that Elastic Illusion turned into an elastic illusion, in retrospect, is that I am FREAKING TERRIFIED of performing. I had no idea. It’s like it’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten more skilled or something. I don’t know exactly what the deal is, but this has been some CRAZY intense fear I’ve been working with over the past month. My daddy who I think is smart tells me that as long as I keep growing and expanding this is going to keep happening, which, if the past is any reference, seems true, so I’ve tried a new way of dealing with it. Rather than beating myself up for oh, let’s say, not leaving the house in 3 days because I’m too scared, I just keep telling myself that I love me. I love you Brit. That sort of thing. Now, I must say, this has not made the fears go away, but it’s at least an experiment, and lord knows I love a good experiment.

Anywho, I have barely street performed at all, and my soul is singing and calling and begging and pleading me to get out there and street perform. On the subway platform, just dance my heart out and preach consciousness transformation. I had been working on a show and all that. Some lame schtick right. And so tonight, THIS VERY NIGHT, there was a fire performer at the gig I was doing, and she performed twice, and she was quite good. Very entertaining, very engaging, very pretty and skilled, all the good stuff right. BUT! It’s the same damn show every time. She has gags that work every time just the way she planned. She does her tricks in the same order, makes the people laugh, makes them say OOOOOH at just the same spot, and I realized, I would really rather jump into cubicle hell then do that.

SO, my soul and my being and my essence is calling for me to go out into the world and perform and dance for strangers and tell them that they ARE the essence of God itself. That their creativity is unlimited, that their capacity for love and joy and growth and acceptance and hugs knows ABSOLUTELY NO BOUNDS for they ARE the infinite. To feel those things that I say so deeply that I MYSELF cry in their presence, but not tears of weakness, tears of oneness. And then to smile to them and get funky and do some mime and the whole 9 yards. To just improv the whole thing. To turn life into this neverending improv jam.

And I just feel a little stuck, a little out of tune, and HUGELY TERRIFIED. Who the hell am I to do this? What the hell do I know? I’m a guy sitting at home on Valentine’s day behind a computer with a furrowed brow who isn’t even EMBODYING the joy he’s telling everyone else about, and yet every ounce of my body is telling me to get out and do this. To spread it into the world and to be my own unique little cog in our beautifully-deranged-wheel-of-humanity.

I just saw an amazing (saintly even!) friend of mine last weekend for the first time in 2 years and said friend mentioned to me that every single person I know, and more than likely, every single person I have even EVER SEEN, is no more than a sampling error in the census of humanity. For some reason, this struck me in a way that cliche things like that usually don’t, and I realized that all the stuff I read about, that there are no coincidences, that you are always sitting next to the EXACT person you are supposed to be sitting next to, that there is a real ORCHESTRATION going on, is actually true. Because I have only met 1/100 of 1% of humanity. .01%. So all of you that I am writing to right this instant, and the names and faces are flying by as I speak. We’ve walked this path so many times together.

And especially in these times, when all my cool confidence and LIFE-SURE-IS-GREAT-ISN’T-IT enthusiasm have all gone south for the winter, I am so grateful for you all. I cherish all the beautiful moments that we have shared together and I bless you with peace and self-love and the ability to immerse yourself RIGHT DEEP DOWN INTO THE HEART OF THE WHOLE SHEBANG.

i truly truly truly truly love you
Brit

P.S. part of the whole realizing I haven’t loved myself so much thing is that every time I’ve sent out an e-mail like this in the past, it’s felt so egotistical. Well, lucky for me, it doesn’t anymore. So I’m gonna shoot for sending one out a month from now on. Cuz I LOVE WRITING ABOUT MYSELF!!! HUZZAH FOR ME!

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So I have really been going through it the past few days. Feeling worthless, unloved, pathetic, a speck of dust in some stupid cosmic game.

It’s funny too, because I just wrote an e-mail to all my friends and acquaintances about the power of belief systems and love and a whole bunch of other stuff that has seemed far, far away as of late.

It has been a real humility giver this one. I really thought I had it figured out. I told my dad that I thought I had maybe a couple things to clear up and then I was done. Enlightenment here I come. I got so cocky I started thinking I could handle even a seemingly scary thing like homelessness with no problems, no issues, piece of cake.

Oooooh boy.

Anyway, I’m not going to go into it, but homelessness kicked my ass. It was NOT easy for me to fall asleep not knowing who or what could appear while I slept helplessly. At the same time, shouldn’t I have just been able to use the power of mind to send out vibrations of love and fall asleep easily, knowing that all is well.

That’s what I thought would happen anyway. Turns out that no, that did not happen. Instead, my mind would not let me fall asleep, every noise sent out a new flood of fear-based adrenaline, as I laid there, awake, until I just passed out due to sheer exhaustion, waking up only a few hours later, unable to fall back asleep and thrust into the stupor that I would spend the remainder of the day in.

So this for whatever reason thrust me into a whole spade of life issues that I didn’t even remember I had. Fears and inadequacies and a whole host of reasons that I was worthy of self-hatred. I eventually had to call a friend and was extremely graciously (thank you thank you thank you 1000 times over) given a place to stay and good food. When I saw my friend, I immediately burst into tears in a way that I don’t remember doing since childhood. We’re talking minutes of all-out sobbing.

Anyway, this wasn’t even the worst of it. This was followed by days of numbness and despair, wondering (in the most negative way) what the point of life is and if I was ever gonna make it through this one.

But boy have I been given some lessons. I learned that I do not have A DAMN THING figured out. I may have discovered a trick or two, cast a few spells, but I am right in the thick of it just like everyone else. So no matter how much I teach other people or encourage them to live the life of God, I am mostly just talking to and encouraging myself. And that’s fine, as long as I remember!

I learned how much deep self-hatred I have had. How much I have not really loved myself. The time has come. I have always thought that maybe I had an attraction to men. I didn’t realize how much shame I felt about this and how conflicted I was. I have always thought I could be a little more physically flexible– but I didn’t realize how much I sent thoughts of worthlessness and hatred to my body.

So after almost collapsing today, I retreated into a room, laid down, started breathing, and went through my body, sending hearts and roses and I love yous to every part. My hips and butt, my neck and shoulders, my elbows and ankles and toes. I sent love to my thoughts and my desires, to my actions and dreams, to my shortcomings and hangups.

But what am I really getting at here. What do I want to say. Why do I feel these feelings. This is what I want to say.

I want to say that this is why we are here. We are here to move forward and to learn and to grow. And that the reason to live for joy and to follow your excitement and your heart is not the pat answer that I thought it was.

You follow your joy because that is what is specifically designed to knock you head-f’in-first into your next wall, your next barrier, your next limitation. And the only way I can see out of looking at life as one endless journey toward limitation after limitation seems to be HUMILITY.

Because when it comes down to it, what really gets me each time is thinking that PHEW! that last time was tough, but I DID IT! I crossed the threshold, jumped over the final hurdle, and now I’m home free. But that’s just another illusion. After every completion is a new beginning. That’s the nature of life, just like it’s the nature of fractals.

And even if you DO cross every hurdle, then you have a whole new set of astral hurdles to cross over oh wide-eyed human voyager! So I’m learning, little by little, to accept this. To see that this is the way it goes and that this is the way it is.

That no matter how much I think I understand, that no matter how high I’m riding, there’s another hurdle waiting to cut me down if I don’t have the humility to remember that Brit, the personality structure physically typing these keystrokes, is nothing more than a dream of the Cosmic Dreamer.

Buddha told his disciples to love each member of humanity equally, as you would your lover or your family. He suggested this because he knew that due to the immense number of life cycles each soul has gone through, every single person on Earth has been near and dear to you at one moment or another. Wow.

Here’s to loving yourself and staying humble. Amen.

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It’s been a long time since I last wrote at you and in that time, some have clamored for the next e-mail while I’m sure many others have forgotten that I still occupy space on this big rock we all call home. But not to be forgotten, because hey, it’s the age of instant self-promotion baby, I am back! Yet again! With exclamations galore!

So, when I last wrote you, it was mid-March and I had just returned from the Holy Land. It was good thing I did (in my opinion), because well, the Holy Land seems to have turned into the Hot-Zone Land in the meantime. So, let me first send my best wishes and prayers to those of you in that part of the world and hopefully my musings about myself will lighten the burden so to speak

For me, much has happened since I last wrote. I would say the most exciting and pivotal and fundamental shift has been that of location. I am back in Los Angeles, North Hollywood to be exact, and I am oh so so so so so so so so happy here. The day I got back, my wonderful friend picked me up at the airport and I said to her, I have a feeling this is supposed to be a time of great light in my life. And it indeed it has been. First off, I don’t have a car. I had a car waiting for me (generously offered I might add) but I turned it down because I wanted to keep living like I was travelling. And to a great deal, I have succeeded. I walk almost everywhere–experience a great sense of community here in the NoHo Arts District, and have become the first white person to use the LA bus system. Also, just last week, I taught myself to ride a bike (yes I never learned as a kid). It took a lot of affirmations but only took me 5 minutes!! And boy can I just say, it’s a cool feeling, especially when you first experience it as an adult. Quite exhilirating.

I have been focused on dancing more than I ever have before. It’s really getting serious at this point. I have been really working on a lot of new styles of dance and am branching outside of popping and I love it. I am everyday discovering a whole new love for dance. This really happened because I finally admitted to myself and to others that I was scared of just “dancing.” It’s interesting when you get good at something how you can start to build an identity around it. As I got better at popping, it began to create an almost constricting feeling because I was good at this thing and thus had something to lose by trying other types of movement that I might not be as good at at first. Once I let this out and said basically, I’m scared of being bad at dancing, I was able to allow myself to be bad and start on the road of being good. Anyway, to make a long story longer, I am happily working on hip-hop, house, locking, wacking, salsa (all Latin really), rocking, and ballet at the moment. For those of you who don’t know what those dances are, I have just created the perfect opportunity for a segue, for this is what effective writers do–we create magical transitions that move the reader along from one thought to the next in a seamless, almost magical fashion.

If you are still reading, you obviously are enjoying yourself and I have you hooked, so I will continue at length. Otherwise, who needs you anyway? So, the segue I was referring to is that I am in the process of building something so that people will no longer have to be (or have an excuse to be) uneducated about dance, specifically streetdance. This is in progress, and I don’t like to talk too much about things in progress, as I still believe in jinxes and cooties, but let’s instead abstract.

Basically what has happened since I have moved back is that I have become, in the words of my roommate Tyson, empowered. I no longer feel a reason to complain about a single thing in my life. I feel completely in control of all aspects of my life (except introducing myself to women that I think are really really hot, but one step at a time you know) and this sense of power just feels like it is pervading everything, everything, everything.

I am in a performance group called Elastic Illusion and we have begun peforming and have released our first DVD and put up our website and myspace. The website is in 1.0 form and is almost a skeleton at the moment but as the days and weeks go by, the transformation will develop until it is full-fledged and awe-inspiring. This I guarantee. Also, within the week, there will be dance clips of me and the other members of the group performing so hopefully, that will keep you checking the site! The group is absolutely incredible and so talented and I can’t wait to watch it all develop and come together. And most importantly, for the first time, I feel like I am in a group where the members are as much friends and brothers and confidantes as just working partners. We all eat organic, talk conspiracy theory and God, and just dance all day everyday. It’s truly blessed and I am humbled and beyond grateful.

Now, for a less smooth segue. My roommate Tyson (also memeber of Elastic Illusion) and I have also begun street performing, which for those of you with interest and a good memory know is something I was very excited to begin doing when I got back to LA. It’s interesting because right before moving back, I actually cried twice about the prospect of doing this–my fear was so great. But it really has blossomed into something beautiful and every time I do it I enjoy more and more just messing with people. Just having fun with random strangers and interacting with people on the street. This has always been my greatest wish and greatest fear and to watch it happening is… well, almost unbelievable. It’s also a great study in human psychology how by putting on a costume and doing tricks for people, you are given license to be crazy. I have always wanted to just be crazy but have been concerned about institutions and legal proceedings. If you are in the same boat, my advice is to get a costume, because I promise, you’re all set if you do!

Now, to take a turn to the more serious, which is the area that I most enjoy. I really, internally, have become what a teacher of mine Caroline Myss calls a monk without a monastery. I really feel like all of these things I have just written are simply what I am being called to do and are the things I need to do for my own healing and to become a person capable of healing others. If after writing this, something is released and I am called to something else, PEACE OUT WORLD. The things that I have watched manifest in 4 months I would not have believed were possible in the past. As I have gone from timidly stepping to confidently stepping to leaping and jumping onto the path with complete faith and certainty, magic just keeps happening. And I realize it’s a law. Like in physics. Like it *IS* physics that scientists just haven’t fully proved yet. But they will. But until then, we call it “magic” and people read this and think I’m one of “those people.” Well, I am one of those people and I am happy to be it and I will wait for you on the other side patiently because I am simply calling a duck a duck.

I have fully realized that we are here to do what we want to do. The mind has an incredible capacity to create justifications, rationalizations, and reasons why we should be doing something we are less than completely joyful to be doing. But those reasons are hollow and if you just leap, you will see that what appeared to be a cliff was actually a bridge, Indiana Jones-style.

So I have leapt. I come from a place of being an extreme perfectionist and at this moment, I release it. I choose now quantity over quality and I am just going to let the energy flow and get things out there. I am willing to be criticized for any of the following: not being good enough, selling out, watering down, trying to make an easy buck, being wack, exploiting, being crazy, being stupid, or anything else you can think of. CUZ I JUST DON’T CARE ANYMORE (look back on the monk without a monastery part to see why). Upon releasing this, I have watched my energy quadruple, my output multiply by tenfold, my capacity for ideas go through the roof, etc etc etc. I know this might sound like the ramblings of someone on the verge of a breakdown, but this is the current velocity of a process that has been accelerating for 2 or 3 years now. And finally I am willing to just say it unapologetically.

We create our reality. If you are anything less than completely happy with what you’ve created, CONGRATULATIONS!

And now I will start a new chapter of Brit’s lil ole newsletter, the recommendation section. This is things that I have loved that I have taken in since I last saw you:

Books:
-The Long Tail by Chris Anderson ****#1 book recommendation****
-Be Here Now by Ram Dass
-Ask and It Is Given by Abraham
-Building a Company by Paul Hawken
-The E-Myth by Michael Gerber

CDs:
-All of Jack Johnson’s CDs
-Citizen Cope CD ***#1 CD recommendation****
-Pigeon John CD-Pigeon John Sings the Blues
-Mason Jennings “Use Your Voice”

Movies:
-Thank You For Smoking
-Waking Life
-What the Bleep Do We Know (the more you watch it, the better it gets)
-Waiting (hilarious)

Processes:
This is really what I do with everything now–every idea I have, but I started by just doing it with my life. I will explain it to you in detail because I think it is the magical key that unlocks the universe. I feel like we are in a virtual reality (coff.. string theory.. coff) and that this process makes the reality more what we want it to be as opposed to just happening to us like a dream does. It goes like this:
First, you have to WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. For whatever reason, writing is the only way to make it work. Don’t ask me why, but skip this part at your own peril.

The first step is to write down your end-of-life goals. Your life purpose so to speak. Mine has very little to do with “make 10 million dollars” or “climb Mount Everest” and has much more to do with “be a person who spreads love” and things like this. So don’t think you have to do this in any specific way. But start there.

Then, working backwards, write down your goals for 10 years, 5 years, 2 years, 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, and 1 month. I think working backwards is better for most people because it’s a step of refining. How do I get to where I want to be when I die in 10 years? How do I get to where I want to be in 10 years in the next 5, etc etc etc.

That’s it. I don’t think you even have to read the goals (I personally read mine at least once a week). It’s really the process of doing it that counts.

———–

So that’s that!
I hope it is half as much to read as it was to write.
LOVE YOU ALL ALWAYS AND FOREVER!
lil’ ‘ole me

P.S.
I think a lot of this empowerment was unconsciously spurred by the fact that my main dance teacher passed away in a rather tragic way in May. I was in a certain way unaffected by this. I know reincarnation to be a fact and I feel him there every time I even think of him (like right now) and we didn’t have much of a day-to-day relationship so that aspect wasn’t difficult for me. But in another way, to watch someone who I learned so much from and who taught me so much just disappear like THAT *snaps fingers*, I think served as a catalyst in some ways to just F’ING DO IT. Stop wondering and stop waiting and just go for it. Because this is what he always told me and this is what he always did. I wrote a eulogy about him which you can read here (scroll down). You can also watch clips of him dancing at the same link. He was a special one and left quite the legacy.

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so it’s been a long time, i shouldn’t have left you, without an e-mail to check through (this is a play on rap lyrics for those not in the know)

…but time goes on and before you know it, you arent even in the holy land anymore (you in this case are me)…

you are in fact in maine… which is where i am as well… coincidentally… i left israel about a week ago and spent a great week in NYC and now im visiting the family before moving back to LA shortly…

since i left you (when i left you i was in dahab in the sinai peninsula) much has gone on, as i hope it has for you as well…. at this point, seeing as the trip is over, i dont feel like rehashing too much but i will give some highlights and then some reflections that is what people seem to be interested in hearing since ive gotten back…

in the last month of the trip, the best part came after realizing that i didnt care about traveling anymore… i let go of all expectations of what i “should” do and ended up having the best travel time i have yet had… i think this is because with no expectations, i had the time to connect with people which led to developing relationships which are the thing it feels like we’re all after in the first place…

i was lucky enough to meet and stay with several egyptian friends and families and to really experience the culture there… for the first time while travelling, i really tried to learn the language… just basic phrases and so on, but to really use them day to day… the effect this had was IMMENSE.. i cant overstate it… if ever someone looked at me funny, id just smile and say “salaam” and they would immediately want to talk to me and be my best friend… it was incredible… i learned so much from that experience, that by trying to learn another’s culture, WAY MORE DOORS get opened… WAAAAAAY more…

anyway, another of my favorite things about egypt was the call to prayer, which is called “allah akbar” (God is great) and is repeated 5 times per day… i personally feel like having prayer so embedded in a culture is an amazing practice… i dont think it would work so well in the states, but it was truly beautiful to see…

some of my favorite things while still in egypt were staying in a nubian village at the house of a friend i made near aswan… taking a 3-day felucca (sailboat) ride up the nile from aswan to luxor… seeing the pyramids of course… seeing a sufi dance performance and then a darbuka (hand percussion) performance where the drummers battled on rhythms… that was incredible…

and of course, the CITY OF CAIRO! i was awed by cairo… over 20 million people in what feels like total chaos (balagan for hebrew speakers) and NO STOP LIGHTS… crossing major streets is like an extreme sport… i loved it.. a lot of people dont enjoy egypt because of the intense hustle that goes on there… people are constantly trying to figure out how to get your money… i used this as an opportunity to try to hustle hustlers and try to figure out the patterns they use to milk you dry… this was sometimes frustrating, sometimes rewarding, but almost always entertaining… i went to morocco 5 years ago and got hustled so hard that i was determined to learn to hold my own, which i feel i certainly did this time…

i discovered by far my favorite juice that i have ever had which is fresh-squeezed/pressed sugar cane juice (called assir assab in arabic) and is not only ridiculously tasty but also quite good for you, both your energy level and your stomach/digestion… i probably drank at least 4 of these per day… and at a whopping 8 cents each, i felt justified…

i also got to spend a few days with an egyptian popper (dancer) and his friend and this was an incredible experience to connect through a passion with someone from a totally different culture… i was treated so well and shown such hospitality and was able to ask so many questions (he spoke english) about arab culture and politics and religion… it was really really special…

he also got me to try almost every kind of egyptian food that there is… and the food is GOOOOOOOOOD and so cheap… im talking 8 different dishes for $1.50 kind of cheap… and im not kidding.. this actually is what i paid in alexandria for 8 dishes…

funny egypt fact: almost EVERY GUY i met was named either mohammed, ahmed, or sayed… in aswan, a nubian gave me the name abdullah, which means “slave to allah”.. i went by abdullah about half the time in egypt because no one understand “Brit”

so then i had a week left in israel which was equally amazing… reconnecting with all of my friends there after not seeing them for a month and having 4 days of Shabbat (which is all party all the time) and 3 days of Purim.. Purim is a Jewish holiday where you are REQUIRED to get so drunk that you cant tell the difference between good and bad… the point being that you connect with the One that is beyond either good or bad… it was 3 days because of the Jerusalem clause… it is celebrated one day everywhere except Jerusalem and then another day in Jerusalem so we made the most of it to say the least

my final night was the end of a Shabbat and we ended up in Zion Square in Jerusalem which is like 3rd St. in LA or Times Square in NYC with about 20 of us parading through the street singing and dancing for a good 2 or 3 hours.. by the end when my wonderful friends carried me on their shoulders to a cab, there were a good 100 people around us watching and clapping… i got so into dancing that i came VERY VERY VERY close to missing my plane…

so that’s that…

in terms of what i take from the trip it was very clear to me when the first person asked… it came right out..
“Follow Your Bliss” …a wonderful, succinct quote and lesson from Joseph Campbell… i witnessed over and over and over how by doing that, by surrendering (btw Muslim means “one who has surrendered”), life creates miracles… it’s basically a formula as far as i can tell… so i encourage each and all of you to do exactly that because the joy and growth it brings into your life is beyond compare… non-pareil for the french speakers

so im headed to do just that and move back to LA and really go for it… study dance and acting and focus on performing, choreographing, and street performing… i am very excited and have complete faith that everything will happen exactly as it should

much love to you all……. and dont think im stopping here… after ive been in LA for a while ill write again and update…

oh yah, and ill take this time YET AGAIN to encourage you all to send me and your other friends group e-mails as well… i think if i was getting an e-mail from a different person everyday about their life, exciting or mundane, i would be happier and the world might be a better, more connected place

MUAH
brit

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ok… so i am writing now because i dont want another month to pass… and because i feel like my emails have been, at least for me, heavy and i am feeling very light and happy right now so i can express light and happy things

i have to say, getting all of your emails has just been incredibly warming… i just read so many thoughts and ideas and experiences that my heart is just warmed perfectly like when you roast a marshmallow just right… lol… i also happened to read 2 other people’s travel experiences and it was so exciting for me that it allowed me to let go of any ideas that writing about my trip is somehow arrogant or self-indulgent… yay…

it is also interesting for me because i feel like the emails i just read express the whole circle of life as it were… i found out about graduations, marriages, depressions, deaths, celebrations, travels, confusions, insights, and a lot in between and i guess i just feel grateful for being able to experience it all.. i read a story just yesterday about the goddess kali in indian culture who is the destroyer (boy i hope i dont get this wrong lol) but represents all of life… all of the things i just wrote… and that the hindus have decided that the only way to deal with kali, rather than loving or hating or anything else, is just to honor her… to honor life…

so this is how i feel right now… it’s a very special thing we are all experiencing, being alive… and after hearing about an unexpected death, as im sure we all have, its a reminder (at least for a minute) of how special it really is…

anyway.. back to lightness..

i am in sinai, egypt… the real-deal holy land.. im writing from an internet cafe in dahab and ive been in egypt for about 8 days… i spent the first few at a rainbow gathering (basically a hippie/traveller/nomad group) world healing retreat in bir el ugda which is a wadi (valley) in the mountains of the sinai… we ate only raw food and rather small quantities of it at that (veggies and fruits) and the most amazing thing for me is that i wasnt hungry at all… and then i get back and starting eating rice and pasta and im hungry hungry hungry… anyway.. the gathering was nice but it made me realize that in a certain way i HAVE found what i am looking for…

i accept now that i am jewish, or that i will identify myself as jewish, regardless of what people think about my mama… but at the same time, that it’s ok for me to define this on my own terms… the thing i realize now that i have loved about being exposed to judaism is the sense of community and the joy and the dancing and the singing (as i have probably mentioned before) and the zest for life and the shared sense of history and culture and worship… and this is enough… so i do plan on incorporating judaism into my life but in a way that works for me.. and i guess what that is remains to be seen…

while in sinai, where there are no chairs and normal means of reclining, i have also been forced to sit on my butt all the time and have realized exactly how inflexible my hips and ankles are… i have been feeling for a while now a real desire to really be doing hatha yoga and so i have started doing this in earnest… over the past 5 years of getting to know my body through dancing i am much more aware of exactly where the tightness is and i can feel it loosening already… it seems like the hardest part is changing the muscle memory which is locked in tightness… the reason i thought to mention this is i wanted to pass this along to those of us who are always trying to “get in shape” or “exercise more”… i have stumbled upon something that i feel is REALLY working for me…

i tend to overcommit myself.. i get excited about exercising and i say “ill do an hour of yoga a day”.. and this is going great so i say “ill also do 15 minutes or cardio” and this is great too.. so then i say “ill meditate for 20 minutes a day” also.. and this is all great!!!! and then 3 weeks later there comes a day when i REAAAALLLY dont feel like doing it and the next thing i know 4 months have passed and i havent stretched once… so… i made a new deal with myself about a week ago… 1 sun salutation a day.. i will commit to doing a single sun salutation (this takes about 30 seconds or 1 minute) for a year.. and i will not allow myself to add to this commitment until a year has passed… because what often happens to me is i get really excited and then when i dont do what i said i was going to do 1 day i get discouraged and beat myself up and blah blah blah and i stop… and i have found that doing that 1 sun salutation gets me in the mode of having a focus on my body and stretching more throughout the day anyway… but when that day comes along when i dont feel like doing anything, i will (hopefully) do the 1 sun salutation, feel like i accomplished something, and go on to the next day…. less is more they say!

speaking of less is more and other paradoxes, i also read a book called “the dancing wu-li masters” about quantum physics–its history and connection to spirituality… it is amazing to me this whole wave-particle duality… if you don’t know it, or you know it but dont REALLY understand it, i suggest you google it because it is simple and amazing… so basically, at a subatomic level, everything is both a particle AND a wave at the same time… for me, this has become a good working metaphor for life… classical logic doesnt work at all because it’s based on this OR that, one or the other, what are you going to do with your life, how will you make money, etc etc etc… but the world is actually both this AND that.. the sum is greater than the parts… i like it anyway

so the rainbow gathering… yah it seems like people who are searching for something…. travelling as a means of trying to find meaning… which i guess also describes me… BUT! so i met this guy there.. i like this story… this italian guy who had started a few businesses and they all failed and he was $50,000 in the hole… and his sister had to put her house up as collateral for the bank and the clock is ticking and the pressure is on for this guy… so he starts consulting, doing programming work, for an online casino in london… the casino is almost bankrupt and somehow after a year or two he winds up as the CEO… he just cashed out his shares of this place which now makes a cool $260 mil / year.. and the guy is like…. UMMMMMMMMMMMMM.. now what???? and it just blew my mind because it’s like a real life example of that game you play to figure out what you should do with your life of “what if you had more money than you knew what to do with… then what”… and i meet a guy like this in real life..

and BAM!… i knew what i would be doing.. i would be creating dances and performances and articles and screenplays and living out these ideas i have in my head… and where else would i want to do this but LA… and i realized that i dont care about travelling anymore for the time being… because in a certain way i have clarity (i SURE HOPE THIS IS NOT ONE OF MY SHORT LIVED GIANT PROCLAMATIONS LOL!!!) and i feel that extending my trip indefinitely and this and that is sort of denying this clarity.. being afraid of actually putting myself out there, so i will just wander and see the world and be a great adevnturer etc… it reminds me that i was talking to a friend in jerusalem when i was all confused about judaism and he said to me, the interesting thing about your plan of “no plans” is that you have sort of denied the possibility that life wants you to STAY somewhere for a while… and i said… PSSSSHHH (this is what you say in israel when something blows your mind)…. so… that’s nice…

anyway… after that… i have watched life have its fun with me and i wound up travelling with the 2 people from the rainbow gathering who i was hoping to travel with because i connected with them the most (this happened in an almost comically synchronistic way)… and we travelled first to ras abu gallum and then to LAGUNA outside of ras abu gallum in sinai, egypt… which is… without a doubt… the most peaceful, beautiful, memorable place that i have EVER been to… this is the first place that i have been in my life that i know i will ache to get back to… there is NO ONE there and it’s a laguna on the red sea with a bedouin host and you stay in bungalows and your meals are taken care of and it costs about $8 /day for everything and it’s surrounded by a coral reef and you go snorkeling if you want and have freshly caught fish for dinner and etc etc etc etc etc… it’s ALSO funny because my camera battery died just as i got there and there’s no electricity so i have no “captured” memory of this place which makes it even more special for me… i just.. wow.. it was just the most amazing place i have ever been… the water was incredible, snorkeling was even more so, the sunsets even more so, the bedouin hosts much more so…

speaking of which, a lot of you have asked about “the situation” and all that… i have spoken with lots of israelis and lots of arabs and some are racists and most are not, and this conflict is BY FAR the most confusing “issue” that i have EVER come into contact with… the more i learn, the less i know, and i just want to bury my head in the sand… in my humble opinion, it will take a global consciousness change, the return of the messiah, or an alien landing on the wall separating israel from the west bank for this thing to ever end… i will say no more..

SOOOOO.. the other thing that got me thinking about my deep commitment to judaism was that in tel aviv i met these christians and i liked everything they were saying too… basically, god is good and as most of you have said, they are all saying the same things anyway… love your neighbor, be happy, be kind, be faithful… so at 3:38 on february 18, 2006, this is good enough for me…

and with that, i think ive said enough… i am off to cairo soon enough and well see what happens…. love you ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL and thanks for listening..

brit

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shalom chevre (friends),
so it appears that in calendar time pretty much a month has passed since i last wrote… it’s interesting how that happens… one day you are saying “i should probably write people soon” and then a month has gone by… and you are like (you are me in this case) “wow.. how do you update people on a month without boring them to death”… and so you are like “better just go for it…”

i left you off about to head to jordan, which i did.. i spent about a week there travelling with 2 friends and had a wonderful time.. we did many unique things that hundreds of other people were also doing at the same time we stayed in the famed wadi rum desert in a bedouin tent for a night and before going to sleep entertained the bedouin’s family with my dancing and my friend’s beatboxing, which was a huge hit for the 7 children… we then spent a few days in petra aka the most beautiful, unimaginable thing i have ever seen… google it for pictures.. basically, the nabataean’s carved buildings into mountains.. like crazy, massive, beautiful greek style buildings… into mountains… and then we finished this off with a night in amman where i met a new friend of a friend and was wined and dined middle-east style… i almost wrote right after that… at that time, the big thing on my mind was poverty… the bedouin family and a worker we met in petra, a wonderful, beautiful, friendly phillipino woman named mona who left her 10-year old son because her husband died to come work at a hotel in jordan for 5 years for the privilege of sending all of her paychecks back to the phillipines while she dined on ramen the whole time… and i was thinking.. what is this… i gallavant around the world, making friends say “wow it’s so beautiful what you are doing”… and then there is this… but as life so often does, it moved on and i forgot about all that stuff that i had felt “so deeply” for days… what is that? …….

so then im back in israel and i get to talking to a lot of people which i have been doing about this thing called shomer nagia, which means “keeping touch” which means not touching people of the opposite sex until you are married, and then only touching your spouse… it’s fairly common among orthodox jews and it struck me as the most fascinating, bizarre practice i had ever encountered… so i get back and get barraged with these people (moves in mysterious ways) and after a lot of debating and wondering and reading a great book called “the magic touch” (amazon it), i decided to try it… so i did that for 3 weeks until yesterday and it really really (for the time being anyway) gave me a whole new understanding of touch and flirting and the ways i manipulate people for touch and am manipulated and the games that i play… cuz basically, i really dont want to play any games at all and im looking for any and all ways to accomplish this… i could write on and on about this stuff but that book i mentioned is really well written and really short and if this sparks your interest at all, check it out.. basically for me, hooking up and getting physically involved with people as a means of starting a relationship has more and more started to make my soul shudder and im trying to figure out how to proceed from here… because at least in america, it’s just normal… and as much as i hate to admit it, i have a great fear of not being normal… but we’ll see… speaking of which,

i came to tel aviv yesterday (which is where i am now) to kind of get away from religion for a little while.. i felt a little inundated to say the least… and i had this grand plan of going to a club and just dancing it all out and having a great time and i did that but there was an emptiness to it…. i have a tendency toward great, short-lasting proclamations, but it sure did feel like something has shifted… like a big part of my self-identity in terms of “going out” and so forth is falling by the wayside… it just doesnt do it for me anymore… as much as i loved the dancing, which i did, i would have enjoyed it as much by myself in my room and probably would have enjoyed even more just talking to other people about life, which a club environment is sadly not conducive to…

other than that, i did a bunch of other stuff… went all over eretz israel with a friend i met the day before we left so that he could sightsee before we left and spent shabbat with a bunch of crazy (in a good way) chasidic guys who where the circle fur hats and sing like ive always dreamed people might sing…

the more important part, to me, have been the real back and forth i have been feeling about judaism… i spent a good week or two “yeshiva shopping” as they call it, which is, checking out schools that teach torah… there were aspects that i just fell in love with and felt like oh my god this is for me… i have to drop everything and im going to move to israel and that’s that and then without fail some comment would be made, about other religions, or how you have to practice judaism, or arabs, or “chosen people”, and i would just kind of shrink back and wonder what i had been so excited about.. this process has continued for me through today… of elation followed by confusion followed by calm followed by new elation etc… and i want to write about panicking and what do i do, but the process of writing it makes me realize “it’s ok”… im sure everybody’s going through something right now….

i also had a little epiphany about my dancing which was…. so, the show that i made in november was an autobiographical one-man show combining dance and monologue.. i combined them because i felt like i couldnt say the things i wanted to say through dance.. couldnt adequately express my soul… i realized that this is not exactly true… it’s more that the form i am currently working with is not enough for me to express those things and that ultimately, im going to have to abandon the form and find my own path.. this is probably THE scariest thing for me because i feel like im betraying my teachers and the dance by doing so, but regardless, scary as it may be for me (and im sure you may wonder what is scary about that… just believe me, for me it’s scary), i know sooner or later it’s what im going to have to do…

so, i feel…. ok.. kind of between ups and downs.. ive been reading a lot lately and just finished “jitterbug perfume” by tom robbins, solidifying mr. robbins as my favorite author.. i recommend this book more than i can say… i would like to create work at that level… whatever the work ends up being.. i feel like im moving in a direction, but not as fast or as clearly as id like, and im really praying right now for a teacher and a environment that promotes growth… i feel like how i had been living is not going to cut it anymore, and that a change is gonna come… but we’ll see… like i said, i have a tendency to strong, short-lived proclamations…

so, the “plan” is to go to egypt shortly, but even writing that i shudder a little at that plan word…. i feel like it always cuts off what the moment is presenting… i thing im rambling as a way to try to find a hook… i would really love to write something that you felt compelled to respond to… ill try this one…

i have a real fear of groups and allegiances and signing onto things… one of the things that made me feel ok about yoga/yogananda is that it’s a spiritual practice more than a religion/set of tenets… but i am really feeling a strong pull from judaism.. and an almost as strong push… for those of you who have dealt with these things, what conclusions have you come to in your own life… i hear so many things.. you need a discipline.. you need to just live… you need a teacher… a teacher will just try to turn you into them… follow god… there is no god… etc etc etc… there is a concept in judaism of hevrouta (im sure i just butchered the spelling) which means learning with a partner… almost like the stereotype of 2 jews arguing back and forth… it’s how the mindset works i think… that’s how you find truth is through discussion… so i guess im asking for you to be my hevrouta… what have you found for yourself??

so, if you read this whole thing, thanks…
much love and even greater gratitude for your presence in my life
brit

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ok wow… so I’ve been in Israel for about 3 weeks now, which is a long time to encapsulate.. so here goes nothing…

thus far, the trip has blown all expectations i had, which granted were few, completely out of the water.. ill start with the most important first and wander along from there.. i have decided to travel indefinitely… the image that is in my head is from forrest gump where he starts running one day (not as a little kid) and then runs and runs and runs until he decides to stop… maybe ill travel for a week, maybe for a decade, but the most important part is that this is my little experiment with the universe… i have come to believe intellectually that the best way to live one’s life is to LET GO.. just let it happen… this is much easier said than done as im sure everyone reading this will agree upon reading it, but i feel like i am in the position to be a guinea pig and report from the front lines… so im going to put idea into action and just see what happens.. so i wake up everyday and the “you should do this” or “how are you going to do this” or “where’s the money going to come from”s start flooding my brain and i push them away and sit up and start my day.. all i can say is, so far, so so so good…

i mentioned in my pre-trip e-mail that the purpose of my trip for me was to meet saints… interestingly, i feel like in this new found world view… i just want to meet people who embody things i would like to embody… and saints certainly still apply.. in this regard, i feel i have done smashingly well so far and have ensconced myself in a little wedge of israel filled with just amazingly real and deep and touchy-feely and wanting-to-grow people who are unknowingly pushing my boundaries and allowing me to let go a little further everyday…

in terms of highlights and all that stuff, i would say the biggest highlight is an introduction to a jewish identity.. while many jews would not consider me jewish since my mom isn’t jewish (my dad is) and i wasn’t raised in the least bit jewish, i have been introduced to what in some way are “my people”… i hesitate to use this word because i truly feel like the world are my people, but i will explain.. people’s sense of humor, the amount of people that wear glasses, the number of nerdy intellectuals, how similar people look to me, how similar people think to me, the questions they ask, i feel like i am around a bunch of me’s (but of course at the same time different).. i have learned about jewish and israeli history and have done 3 shabbas dinners (if you haven’t done shabbat, you haven’t lived imo)…

and most importantly, i have discovered how much i love to sing.. i swear, ive said like 10 times so far that if i could just sing and dance for about 10 minutes every hour i would never need to sleep… it makes me smile so much and just feel so happy and feel God so tangibly that I just recommend it more than I can say… and I love the devotional music so much… it’s hard to put this stuff into words but I guarantee it will really stick with me..

the first 17 days of the trip were on a program that sends western Jews to Israel all for free to get an introduction to Judaism and Israel (and I’m sure there’s a lot of propagandistic reasons as well, but my experience was overwhelmingly positive so I don’t care)… We basically just went around and were wined and dined and shown the highlights of this country, from floating in the Dead Sea (WAAAAAAAY overrated in my opinion) to hiking Masada and in the Negev desert to crawling through caves where Jews hid from Romans to learning how to make chullah to learning Jewish songs and prayers and way too many things in between… lots of great speakers but most importantly great people…

it was 42 of us Americans aged 21-26 and we got to know each other as well as I’ve ever gotten to know 42 people in 2 weeks… we talked about our dreams and fears and desires and worldviews and went outside of boundaries and just really connected.. and even had spats just like MTV’s The Real World… it was a really incredible experience but that being said, being guided around a country in a tour bus is not my idea of a good time in retrospect so I don’t know how much I’ll be doing “tours” in the future… but I truly love all the people I travelled with…

Since the trip has ended, I have been in Jerusalem just having even more of an amazing time meeting new people and doing all kinds of things… Shabbat just ended (it is the time of rest from Friday sundown until 1 hour after sundown Saturday) and for Friday dinner me and 2 friends went to a Rabbi’s house who has hosted whoever wants to come for 30 years and it was about 100 of us from all kinds of countries getting to know each other and enjoying company..

that reminds me, my dancing has been a BIG hit… everywhere I go I have been dancing and have been cheered on…. I have been to 3 weddings so far which are CRAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZY and amazing and so much singing and dancing I dont need to sleep for a week afterwards but they form big circles and it’s so fun going in the circles and popping because everyone is just like WHAT IS THAT?? lol.. but it’s been great.. at the most recent wedding, i met a hip-hop dance teacher who said she could set me up with classes here potentially and also will teach me hebrew for FREEEEEE…

so anyway, after the dinner we went to this hassidic pep rally where there were 300 guys or so on bleachers just singing and praying and they were all wearing the silk robes and huge cylindrical fur hats.. it was seriously out of a movie.. then back home to sleep and then today we went over to a friend’s house for shabbat lunch (I swear all these people do is sing and eat!) and I just met a ton of new amazing people and we had a freestyle music jam for about 2 hours… life is good, God is great..

so… like i said, i think this might just be the beginning… that’s the sense I have right now, but who knows, maybe I will wake up tomorrow and realize it’s time to go home… no plans, I’ll let you know how that way of living works… the trip has been way more than I thought it would be and I really truly feel spirituality moving to the forefront of my life in action, not just in thought… So hopefully next time you see me, you will say SHIT.. YOU SURE SMILE A LOT… WHAT HAPPENED… anyway… I love you all and thank each and every one of you for getting me to where I’m at now…

Tomorrow it is off to Jordan for a few days to see lovely Petra and check out the desert… so I hope this e-mail finds you so well and so fulfilled and if not, that’s cool too

Until we meet again
SHALOM SHABBAT (that’s some 2006 ish)
peace in the middle east
Brit is Otis

p.s. oh yah i got to celebrate my first ever chanukah in israel.. how cool is that!

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BRIT IS OTIS: VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

I am writing this at the suggestion of a friend of mine who was lamenting the fact that I have not done a very good job of keeping in touch. You know who you are. This friend suggested that I send out a semi-regular newsletter as a way to keep in touch, so here in your electronic hands is Volume 1, Issue 1.

I hope if nothing else to encourage you to do the same. I would love to hear what you have been up to as of late, or over a longer period of time, and I’m sure a lot of other people would as well. So, get to it…

This, that you are reading, inspired me to write a longer, more self-indulgent version of my life which I will put on the website I will be creating, appropriately enough called otisfunkmeyer.com (http://www.otisfunkmeyer.com) [it's not up yet] . Which brings us to the name situation. You may know me only as Brit or Brit Wolfson and even a few as George Brit Oehmig-Wolfson which is my full name. It is just as likely however that you know me only as O or Otis or Otis Funkmeyer or even just “oh yah… that white dude?” Either way, they’re one and the same. All just lil ‘ole me.

Anyway, back to the topic. This version is for you if you don’t like to read that much, don’t really want to know that much about what I’ve been up to—just enough to relay to mutual friends when they ask “so who have you heard from lately?” I guess it’s a little long for that, but you get the idea.

On the web site is a much longer, more long walks by the beach, reconnecting with old friends, my-God-how-could-it-have-been-so-long version. It also has lots of nice pictures so that you don’t get too bored. I think it is much more interesting, but then, it’s about me ☺

So I’m going to start in January 2003, which is when I began to lose touch with a lot of people and before I knew a lot of others. I was living in Minnesota working at a place called the Jobs Now Coalition (http://www.jobsnowcoalition) and ultimately it was killing me, because shit, I’m a dancer….

So I quit that, went back to Maine for a few months, talked to my friend Todd (known to some of you as PopNTod), decided to shake things up, flew to Chicago and then to Minneapolis, where my car had been waiting for me, and started a road trip.

I went from Minnesota->South Dakota->Boulder->all over New Mexico->Phoenix->Vegas->LA where I met up with Todd and we headed up to Montana to work at Glacier National Park for the Summer of 2003.

This was an amazing place to be. Just completely out in the middle of nowhere (13 miles to the nearest road) with nothing around but mountains and tourists. I hiked and chilled and worked, as a dishwasher, line cook, and janitor, but mostly just had what was at that point the best time of my life. It was there that I really started feeling more comfortable being myself and that whole thing just started the snowball rolling.

After the summer, I drove back to LA by way of a West Coast road trip (my highlights were Taos, New Mexico; Vancouver, BC; Bellingham, Washington; and Olympic National Park, also in Washington.) When I got back to LA, four poppers, myself Otis Funkmeyer (Brit Wolfson), PopNTod (Todd Breithaupt), JRock (John Nelson), and MaddChadd (Chadd Smith) decided to move in together. The apartment search was loooong and hard because none of us had anything resembling good credit, but we finally ended up in lovely Sherman Oaks—the Valley.

Around the same time, I started going back to school at a distance learning university in Montpelier, Vermont. My thinking was, if I’m going to back to school, I have to be doing what I want to be doing anyway. So the school was perfect because you get to design your own major. The only requirements are you have to read 20 books on your chosen course of study and write papers on them. And spend 8 days in Vermont twice a year. No problem.

So I lived in LA for the next year and a half and just loved almost every minute of it. Our house, as I see it, became a kind of Mecca for dancers. We called it the Kester Hostel because we had dancers staying at our house almost every week and we lived on Kester Ave. We just danced and danced and watched footage of dancing. I had gotten unemployment because my work at Glacier was seasonal, so for 6 months, I was chillllllin’. After that I worked at a sell-your-stuff-on-eBay store, so if you need eBay help, I’m your man—that is, if you’re willing to pay of course ☺

So living in LA was really about just integrating and becoming a dancer and going for it once and for all. The whole time I was there (up until February, 2005) I don’t think I made a dollar from dancing, but that wasn’t the point. I just wanted to be a part of the action. I went there to meet people, to study, and to LEARN. Which I feel like I did, a lot.

During the summer of 2004, I decided that the heat in the Valley was not for me, so I subletted my apartment for 2 months and took another road trip. I spent 2 weeks at a meditation retreat called Ananda, which comes HIIIIGHLY recommend by me (http://www.ananda.org) and that began another little shift in my consciousness, as I began to open to spirituality. I also went to Calgary during that trip to study with Boogaloo Sam, who many see as the creator of popping. He NEVER teaches and this was one full week of classes with him, so it was worth the 37-hour Greyhound bus ride next to a very large woman that it took to do that. July 26, 2004, the day I met Sam, officially became the happiest day of my life (there’s a picture of me with Sam that day that I’ll put on the website. You can tell it’s a big deal for me by the shellshocked look in my eyes.)

I got back to LA and just continued where I left off. By this time, I was in my second (of three) semesters at my university and I started getting the feeling that this whole LA adventure was winding to a close.

There were several rough months when one roommate moved out and had to be replaced by someone from “the Internet” who skipped town and headed to the border shortly thereafter with about 5000 dollars of someone else’s money. It didn’t get much better when his prostitute girlfriend took over his part of the lease. And that’s when JRock and I (the only two remaining) decided that the grass was definitely greener elsewhere.

So I left LA in February of this year, spent a month at the same meditation retreat (also known as an ashram), and there the whole spirituality thing really started to blossom. I ended up taking discipleship with a specific line of teachers that I feel very very connected with (Yogananda for those of you who know). This was done in some ways (as writing about it is also) as a method of admitting to myself how important spirituality is to me. I was so worried that people would think I was some cult member or weirdo or something, but I knew I had to do it. So I did. And it’s the best choice I’ve ever made so far.

Then I came back to Maine to live with my lovely mother Donna and step-father Norton and to start my final semester at Vermont College. I had tried to start a dance group in LA with several EXTREMELY talented dancers, but for a variety of reasons, nothing materialized. I had decided about two months prior to that that my days of solely being a student were numbered, and I was ready to put myself out there. Once the group fell apart, I was definitely “bummed.”

I had always had this idea of doing a one-man show when I was well into my Thirties and talented “enough” to be worthy of such a feat, but I just felt like shit, might as well go for it. And so I did.

So from April until early November I was solely focused (thank you parents) on creating this show. It got hard and at times progress was slow, but I ultimately created what I think is a very good with the potential to be very very very great show combining dance and monologue. The show is autobiographical in nature and is an hour long, with about 15-20 minutes of dancing and 40-45 minutes of monologue. They are blended, if I do say so myself, rather seamlessly.

The first performance was November 1, 2005, the day before I graduated, and the show was very much a hit. My goal with the show is to inspire other people toward spirit (or energy or God or Christ or Allah or whatever you want to call it—the unnamable) or for those of you who know the term, is my form of karma yoga. From the response I received, I feel well on my way. The best way I can describe it is that by the end, a lot of people were really really crying, which was the goal (but not in a sad way, more a recognition of beauty I hope).

And then I graduated the next day. So congratulations to me. Ohh yah! My degree is a BA in Liberal Studies with a concentration in POPPING. Yes that’s right friends. Not a misprint. I have to say, it feels good to be the only person I’ve ever heard of to have a diploma with POPPING on it (doing BIG THANGS and thanks to all of the EBs for teaching me how to dance! and all the other dancers for being a constant source of inspiration).

It didn’t hit me what a big deal it was to me until about two hours before when I just started crying uncontrollably, but the combination of that and performing the show, which is DEEEEEPLY personal, was just overwhelming. It felt like a lot of things that I had been afraid of for so long had just been released all at once.

So, now I’m off to the Middle East in mid-December. I was accepted on an all-expenses paid trip to Israel for 17 days, and I will extend my ticket for a mere $50 and spend another six weeks traveling in Egypt and Jordan. I am cautiously optimistic and I hope to meet saints. I figure if I say it, it is more likely to happen, contrary to the whole birthday wish stigma. That’s my only plan, so don’t be surprised if there aren’t pictures of Giza and Petra, but then again, don’t be surprised if there are.

I come back from that trip in mid-February and then I am moving back to North Hollywood—again, the Valley—on February 15, 2006. I figure I will stay there for a while and see what happens. I’m hoping to really take a lot of dance classes almost every day (something I have never done and which I’m really excited about), take some acting classes (the part of my show that needs the most work), work on my show, maybe tutor some middle-school kids, and make most of my living as a street performer. So we’ll see.

So, that’s about it. I feel like this is something one is not supposed to say in public, but I feel like saying it, so what the hell. It’s as much for me I think as for you. My sole goal in life is to find God and much more so, to help other people find God—whatever that means to them, and that’s really all I care about at this point. For all I know, my trip will get cancelled and LA will get destroyed and then who knows, but that’s all I really care about at this point.

Either way, I want you to know that if you are receiving this, I consider you family and someone who I want to have in my life. So thank you for being you and for the connection that we have shared.

I love you all.
Brit is Otis

….Issue 2, the mix tape, will hit the streets when I get to the Middle East. It will without a doubt feature certified bangers, club classics, and a whole lot of me. So be on the lookout, cuz the streets is watching. ☺

P.S. I really would love to hear from all of you. I LOVE to hear what people are up to, so if you feel so inspired, please write something similar. In fact, send it to everyone on your contact list. They’ll be glad you did (or at least I will)!

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