I think this entry might be a large one... I haven't been on here in about a week.. and I have many thoughts to share.

Ok... where to begin? I guess where I left off in Winnipeg. From there we headed West and, despite our noble attempts at driving, only made it to Saskatoon. Upon arriving, I mentioned to Forbes that a dear friend of mine Sue Stewart from Ottawa was now living in Saskatoon working for Grain Magazine - http://www.grainmagazine.ca/. Unfortunately Sue's number was deep in my online email account which I couldn't access from the road, so we decide to drive on towards Edmonton and see how far we got by midnight then crash out in the van. Forbes decided to call his cousin to check in. While he's doing so, I figure I might as well pick up my cell and check if the phone company has actually disconnected it as I had requested a few days earlier. No... hmm... seems telephone companies don't listen too well. You'd think they would... hmm, cell's internal phone book still intact... VOILA!... Sue's digits! Now this isn't too strange but what is strange is that a) Sue lives in Saskatoon. b) I never see her. c) I have enough problems entering my local friends into my cell because of a refusal to be too dependent on technology (note: If you've been reading Forbes' blog you'll see a theme developing ;-) d) The reason I have her number in my phone is because I was in Edmonton in 2001 at an Independent Film and Video Alliance conference -IFVA (Now IMAA - Independent Media Arts Alliance - http://www.imaa.ca/ and had just bought my phone and had entered her digits in case I could drop by to see her. It didn't happen.. I never got in touch.. But, somehow, maybe I was planning ahead for 2006? It gets a little stranger later on in this blog entry so keep reading. Anyway, got in touch with Sue, dropped in at her place, had a lovely visit, caught up on the politics of art and life in Saskatoon, slept in a beautiful meditative space, visited Grain Mags headquarters the next morning.. hugs, a wish of bon courage, and we're off towards Edmonton!

Current Location: Edmonton, Alberta.

We're staying in a condo with Forbes' cousin Jessica Campbell just off Whyte Ave.

1) I have no idea where I would be if it wasn't for Forbes family. I'd probably be in the van somewhere trying to get some Fedex delivery guy to deliver a very important package to me in my world of Nowhere! Alas, I'm here with an actual address, a warm shower, and a full kitchen, and a gym. We're definitely not roughing it yet as the universe is being gentle with me as I attempt to leave it all behind. This in itself makes for a wonderful tangent about how, here in the West, regardless of how hard we may try, it can actually be quite diffifult to arrive at that place of having nothing. And it does speak to the value of community, friendship and good Karma... I am amazed and awestruck with a deep desire to help those less fortunate.

2) I love Whyte Ave! I love everyone's I don't give a $^#% fashion style, I love the little niche junk shops, and I just love the overall vibe. Again here everything is running full circle for me.. back in 2001 I was here for an IFVA conference as a delegate for the Independent Filmmaker's Cooperative of Ottawa - IFCO - http://www.ifco.ca/. I didn't want to stay in the posh hotel where most other delegates were staying since I wanted to save some cash for IFCO. So I stayed at this lovely place called the Strathcona Hotel. Now, if you know Edmonton you probably know about the Strath, and that lovely is not exactly the word to describe it. I, however, love the Strath. It may be a bit grungy, maybe filled with drifters from the wrong side of the tracks, but it's beautiful all the same. The building was built in 1891 by the Calgary & Edmonton Railway Company and is the longest standing woodframe commercial building in Edmonton. During prohibition the building served as the Westminster Ladies College, and over the years it has also served as a gathering place for all walks of life.

So now.. in 2006 I'm right across the street from the Strathcona Hotel in a cush condo... I'm walking down Whyte Ave having complete deja vues... life is funny. Which brings me to my current feelings about this film project. My feelings at this moment are best summed up by an except from Gary Zukav's Introduction to the Perennial Classics Edition of his book The Dancing Wu Li Master: An Overview of the New Physics. This quote is perfect with the only exception being that I am at the beginning of my film's process and therefore I have left far more room for faith and hope. The only thing I know, is that I know nothing.

"While writing The Dancing Wu Li Masters, I knew it would be published and that it would be very well received. I also knew that it would sell very well for many years after its publication. I did not need to have faith in these things. I knew them. I could see them. It was clear to me that all I needed to do to make them happen was to continue writing. In other words, to do my part. I knew that without my part, none of what I saw would happen, and that with my part, it was already accomplished. I was the key. Everything depended only upon my doing what I was already doing-writing about physics, studying physics, discussing physics, and writing about it each day. That was no problem for me because I love doing those things. I woke thinking about the ideas in The Dancing Wu Li Masters and I went to sleep thinking about them the same way that some people wake in the morning and go to sleep at night thinking about a Beloved. ... A spirit of giving prevades this book... Another reason is that The Dancing Wu Li Masters contains within it the seed of the thought that consciousness lies at the heart of all that we can experience, all that we can conceive, and all that we are. It also points toward the possibility that intentions create the reality that we experience.... When I began writing The Dancing Wu Li Masters, I could only suspect or deduce things about the role of consciousness and intention in the creation of experience, but I soon discovered that some of the founders of quantum mechanics has suspected and deducted the same things decades before me. This was exciting enough, yet as I became more engaged in the writing, I began to encounter phenomena that I could never have imagined. For example, I realized that the book that I was writing was more intelligent than I was... In every instance, I would write not for long before I had to choose between following the outline that I had prepared and going with the energy that developed as I wrote. I always went with the energy."