timmy o neill and gladiolas in slow motion

shout out time. this is me doing an impression of my buddy, timmy o´neill. check out his link to the right...and put on a diaper when you look at his photos or read his words b/c if what he does doesn´t make you shaky - what he says will make you laugh so hard you may lose control of bodily functions.
also, i was reading my best friend, rusty´s, blog- and i was struck by a heavy quotation from samuel clemens, aka: mark twain

"twenty years from now you will be more dissapointed by the things you didn´t do, than by the ones you did do."

those who have ears to hear...chiggity check yo self b´foe you wreck yo self. thanks twainer. and thanks rusty (check out his brilliant link, too). ok, onto updates...after enjoying a beer in a spanish pub owned by a frenchman located on the border of spain/france on the night spain lost to france (amen to right place at the right time?) i made my way to the highway to hitchike south. after a long day, 206 cars filled with heartless people, and a sunburn - i broke my pavlovian rhythm of car/requesting and went back into town to find out that a train to barcelona only costs 5 bucks. ha! a small price to pay for stupid tax, but now i know in an even deeper way than before what all of those folks i have passed on the highways feel like.

so, onto barcelona...just two words here: holy crap. yes, i was sucked in by the energy of the ocean, the small corridor streets, the performers on las ramblas and then - boom! - friends of friends. david poe, i am in debt to you, buddy (check out his link if you would like to bath your ears in chocolate silk or www.myspace/davidpoe ) . david gave me some contact information of his friends in barcelona. one wrote back and met up with me one night on the main tourist street where i was flybarring...with 4 of her beautiful girlfriends- who proceeded to jump on the flybar and then take me out for tapas and beers. uhhh.....high school fantasy come true? left-to-right: vanessa, laura, rebekah, charro, mykah, and leticia (the frenchie, not pictured) - a huge thank you for taking care of me!
highlights of barcelona: the ocean (kind of santa monica vibe, rusty) - playing soccer on the beach with swiss, german, spanish and canadian fellas - watching 4 romanian gypsies pickpocket an arabic man on a subway - the long meals and spanish/english lessons with "las golfinas" - remembering the wisdom of the spanish people of balancing work/play...2-3 hour lunches and nights out until they become early mornings again.

¿ahora que? south, south, south. i might write more about this later, but i have found my way to a small farm with 3 horses owned by a middle-aged german woman who should not be running it by herself. too much work. anyone interested in buying a farm in spain? she´s looking for a way out. anyway, i have decided to stay here for a week to help out and center myself after the past month of being a rambling pogohobo. besides, there is a guitar, a hammock (with a mosquito net- muy importante), a bathing pool and i feel a few songs that need to be birthed. whew...many words, i know - thanks for coming with me, friends. i feed off of your comments. one last thought for the day: never be afraid to be a beginner.


my morning view in portbou, spain

this was after an evening with a czech couple traveling together. we had a few bottles of wine and i before i went to sleep i fell into a cactus. i am still finding little needles in my skin a week later. in my friend, dave burden´s words...i am a "dumb hump".

pimp my flybar

1. wash flybar in a public restroom

2. ...or get a hot german girl to spray it down

3. decorate flybar with bitchin' dragon sticker

4. jot down a few favorite jesus words


5. try to hitch-hike to barcelona


6. after six hours of no love, quit and walk flybar back into small town7. reward flybar by taking flybar to the beach

8. flybar!

vielen dank, deutschland

david?

thank God that most things change...

johannes kepler...my ancestor (this one's for you, mom)

trading harleys for flybars (this one's for you, dad)

for your own good...

holy moses. please do yourself a favor. give your soul a molatov cocktail. go to www.myspace.com/tylerjames and listen to "stay humble". then cool off with www.myspace.com/griffinhouse and listen to 'only love remains'.

from riches to rags
from diamonds to coal
has always seemed better to me

than trading for silver
the price of my soul
to buy what is already free


damn, griff. keep on truckin'. and to quote tom petty, "it's time to move, time to get going, what lies ahead i have no way of knowing, but under my feet, babe, the grass is growing, it's time to move on..."

a night train to paris and then to the border of spain for a hitching to the island of ibiza? who knows...as my great friend, brother and mentor -tres altman - says, "when it comes to making plans, always have reservations." so my soul is full from sounds of home and moments of deep living here in stuttgart, germany - where i 'planned' on staying for two days and am leaving a week later. ha! big love to jens, jesse and sophie for taking care of me. thank you. tweet, tweet.

high times in kaiserslautern - no injuries, thank God

real life american travelers! omar, troy, jose, brian, and mathias (well... from denmark) these guys are on their graduation hurrah tour - all old friends from D.C. (not pictured, Amar - "el jefe" or in spanish circles....retarded tunisian)

azzuri buds - i predicted the score of the game beforehand- i was right, but the ref called back a goal...wanker. the back of my 'jersey' said "cazzo" - which got me laughs and dirty looks

the sureshot, jonas -köenigstrasse, stuttgart

the blessed father... italy v. ghana

someday my friend rusty ralston will own this stand

bratwursts and angelina jolie

uh -oh...

´ello beautiful people. did you see cole´s goal for england yesterday against sweden? unbelievable. makes me want to sign my life away to a füssball club for the next 3 yrs. to be able to do it myself. total mastery of mind and body, i tell you. so much so, that in the subconcious - when the mind is humming 'om', you can rip a ball within inches of your target. so that is the thought of the day....how do we get there???

i've heard that discipline is the road. lately, i have not been disciplined in certain areas of my life...eating too many bratwurts, not learning the language, and being too much of a hermit (funny how hanging out is a discipline for social excellence). so today i am thinking/praying this: help me to practice control over my passions so that i can funnel them into creative acts of love that contribute to the good times of all of those within reach...and beyond, maybe. and today's example: angelina jolie. UN 'goodwill ambassador' who gives 1/3 of her income to refugee camp NGO's, has adopted 2 children, and walks the line of entertainer/humanitarian. of course, there are thousands of soulwarriors doing the good work who will remain anonymous, but this morning i saw her interviewed by anderson cooper (www.cnn.com) and was shaken to my heart once again. God have mercy on the suffering...and then i realize that i am the answer to my prayer.

and a quotation concerning self control...since we're in germany

"you can't keep the birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from building nests in your hair." - martin luther

i'm feeling spain, folks. coastal towns with perhaps a brief appointment with stupidity in pamplona with the running of the bulls on july 7th. if you see me get gored on ESPN, i sure as hell better have a flybar between my legs. ok - i hope you all are experiencing wonder today. be happy.

day in the life of...

luther´s got skills
vow fulfilled

pics...

rocking like pele back in his hayday...

my apologies for MIA, but it has been a string of long, over-stimulated days of tramping around like a hobo with a pogo. let�s talk about spectrums for a moment. i started last week sleeping under an overpass in berlin eating other peoples� "trash" (don�t worry, mom...i still haven�t gotten herpes from this behavior) - to this week, waking up in a posh flat that overlooks all of stuttgart with a fridge full of beer, jello and cheese. the floors are all marble, too, so i feel like liberachi or sigmund and roy - without the tigers and the gay sex of course.

ok, moving on: top news...1) buying two overpriced tickets for italy v. ghana from some sleeze-ball italian guy named "salvatore" who had the chinese character for "trust" tatooed on his neck. turns out the tix were legit and my brother and i fulfilled a childhood vow to make it to the world cup together to see the azzuri play the game that we love. 2) meeting a talented, tramping welsh girl named faye who lives out of her van and busks enough money from playing songs with her guitar to get to her next temporary destination. a few of my new favorite english terms: minging - which means �disgusting� / rum - which means �risky� / see your ass - which means �to be humiliated ...another great comment she had concerning england was "soccer is the game that england gave to the world and now we can�t get it back." this was to describe a great english futbol song that talks about "thirty years of hurt" - england last won the world cup in �66.

the flybar continues to bring the people together and bring the kid out in those who are "rum" enough to hop on. one observation...though soccer has brought the world together this month in germany, all of the jerseys, flags and �ber nationalism keeps most of us at an arm�s length...until people start drinking, dancing, or flybarring. this is why i am doing what i am doing. i am addicted to seeing a tunisian hug a spainard after they have jumped around together for a few minutes in a sea of onlookers. stay tuned for some pictures- as soon as i figure out the damn website stuff. also, thought of the day: does hosting the world cup heal any residual guilt and shame from the nazi era?

drunken german boys + flybar = bad idea...or good times

wow. die fussball weltmeisterschaaft is off and running. with my brother in berlin at the braendenburg gate for the opening match: germany v. ecuador on a jumbotron screen, cuban cigars in our mouths, wonder in our eyes, and grattitude in our hearts for a dream come finally true. it was unbelievable...check out the bitchin` pics.

highlights:

1. drinking brews on the train to the festivities...and to the game (open container, what?)

2. being immersed into germans in their capital city when their team scored the first goal of the cup. talk about good vibrations, brian wilson.

3. pogoing with folks from all over the world and giving away free flybar swag...thus making my pack a lot lighter (light and fast, light and fast kids)

4. jumping over 3 argentine hermanos with the flybar.

5. falling asleep exhausted near some bushes outside of the trainstation

an epic day indeed. my brother said it best..."international euphoria". a lot of my favorite things are being combined right now in my life: crossing cultures, travel, good food\drink, soccer, mass congregations of very different social groups, and a hearty activity to bring them together and laugh, sweat, and believe in themselves. unless they are drunk, and then they just make an ass of themselves...and we get a kick out of it, too. ja duetschland. keep your eye on our boys: usa v. the czechs this monday.

peace and love.

temporary destinations

TEMPORARY DESTINATIONS

ok...

meine bruder and i have arrived to what i will call the "cleanest country" on earth. germany is frickin' beautiful! i haven't walked the terraced patties of the far east yet, but just like hagen daas knows what the hell they are doing with ice cream, german farmers understand how to plant. damn...the womb of the world, i tell you.

i'm a little surly right now. we have spent long times getting our arses over here and already i'm brainstorming what i can do without...can a man really live without underwear and a pair of jeans? definitely not ready to ditch the denim, but my shoulders can not carry what i have packed. anyway, this town that we woke up in this morning...magdeburg - is the first of many temporary destinations. i am a pilgrim...with a pogostick. so perhaps, we could call me a "pogrim". nonetheless, i am embarking on epic journey with this iron beast. where am i going? i don't know, i am only on the way. perhaps i have don quixote delusions but i am determined to contribute to the good times vibration here on this durable planet. i have seen the fruits of facilitating playfulness throughout the united states this past year and thanks to the wonderful people at flybar (www.flybar.com) -david jargowsky & bruce turk- i will continue to pogo for peace, laughs, food, lodging, learning, faith, hope, and love through this part of the earth. keep your ear to the ground and your eyes to the jumbo screens of berlin to catch the beginning tremors of yet another tasty drop in the ocean of love.

~donnie