Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!                                      From Marauder # 4 - January 2012

 A New Year marks yet another revolution of the Earth around our sun! It is a universal time of celebration bringing a sense of change, hope and optimism.
For some it is a time to change bad habits, start new habits, and reset goals that were not accomplished in the last year. Sometimes it is just another day in life for those content with who they are, where they are and what they have. In any case, I feel that this year needs to be a celebration of the people that surround us and are part of our daily lives. Personally, professionally and in all aspects of life. Appreciating the existence of everyone and everything with every new breath that is a gift given to us by a much larger force that unifies the universe. It is a time to let friends and family know that they are treasured because of their presence in our lives. Sometimes they do not follow the right direction or do not seem  supportive but they are part of what shapes ours lives, characters and personalities.
Personally, and I think I can speak for the whole of Clepto, cannot even express the undeniable gratitude we have towards the many friends and family that have helped us out throughout our travels. They are the reason for our ultimate survival and success. We can list the things we do to make our music our life but without people who listen to it, people who love it, and people who support it we are nothing.
 Much love and respect to whoever is doing what they love, living the life they want to lead and appreciate the small and larger things in life. To the friends who have passed, to the new friends that we encounter I thank you for being. For shaping our world with laughter and happiness as this is what we want to send out to the world to hear.
I’d like to also mention the people who change on a daily basis. Not only themselves but the ones that sacrifice their egos to change the world so it is a better place. Protesters, environmentalists, social workers, artists, poets, musicians, photographers, firemen, small business owners the whole heap! It’s about taking charge of your own life, empowering yourself from the inside out and taking action!
 Do not be afraid! If it is not leading to your death then I would say you are fine! It’s been our motto from day one! As long as we are not dieing on a sidewalk in a foreign street and we are playing our music then things are good! Something like being content from the ground up. We do not need many things in order to be happy. Which is how everyone needs to be! Strong roots, the right intentions and the self-power to drive our lives the direction WE want it to go!
 Thank you friends for being you! Wishing yet another successful revolution and the best of luck and courage in any undertaking, as none is too large!

- Philip Al-Hajj

Friday, December 16, 2011

Contemplations, Considerations                                From Marauder #3: Dec 2011
This month I've decided to focus on the self. The 'in the moment' short term memory machine self that wakes up in the morning brushes your teeth and immediately begins making instantaneous decisions that you aren't even conscious of, that make up your waking unique self. It's like a factory that needs to deal with all senses and emotions. It remembers what we prefer, what we don't prefer, it remembers what you have to do next and how to react at any moment to any possible situation. It is something that we often cannot but take for granted. This translates to stress or feeling 'tired' or not being able to sleep. It makes you unmotivated and sometimes just makes you lose the sense of balance that we all need to simply be happy. Even if things in the larger picture seem to be going well! This is why this is a part of ourselves that we need to, while awake, acknowledge, give creative freedom to, and more importantly rest from the external forces of
the rest of the world, planet, and inevitably universe.
"White Noise or Any Noise"
I say take a moment every day, at some point of the day to quieten the voices and noises in your mind, in order to hear your voice. To re-group from either the stimulation it has just gone through or prepare for the next set of stimuli. I'm not talking about sitting cross legged and trying to find the truth and reach enlightenment (although a recommended practice). I'm talking about while you are in a transition stage of the day or a moment, moving from one task to the other, make sure you are still aware of your surroundings and your current state of mind and body. We need to be self aware as much as possible and understand what we are being told by our own bodies and our own energy. Only then will our self be able to completely understand what the universe is truly telling us. There are so many messages that are flowing through that we don't even know where to look. But to be able to see, we need to find our eye that connects to our core. It's a little hard to read these words and not be turned off, who has the time? The problem with that method of thinking is that it fails to
acknowledge the fact that time is always running - we are in time and need to be part of it.
"Stereotypes & Consumer Time"
In any given minute of the day we are capable of so many tasks and decisions, constantly stimulated from all directions, why not take a moment to breathe? Don't say 'I always wanted to' say I want to! It is never too late for anything; It's our willingness to change for it that's different. We've accepted, from what people tell us and what people have decided is the 'norm', that once time has passed it's exponentially more difficult to do something 'new' - learn an instrument, start painting, learn a new language. But what is really the difference? Have we not learned more during our lives that will enable us to learn quicker? To understand more clearly? We turn thick headed, with too many obstacles that others have put in front of us and tell us 'you can't go around, just over'.
"There is always a way"
There's a way to change every moment of your day if you choose to do so, if you need to do so, to be Happy. Out of the non-stop Economically, Politically, Religiously unstable world we have created. The holidays don't have to be but are a good marking point to do what you never got the chance to do or more never had the guts to do. Step up to the edge, look down, JUMP! (figuratively or with a parachute only please!) Connect with yourself, make yourself happy and in turn naturally you will make people and your environment positive and flowing with the cycles that are happening in and around us. Tie up loose ends, end feuds, loose an enemy, give to someone who needs it and truly make the world a better place. Change but don't be changed. It's up to you; it's up to all of us.
Nothing is Impossible, Everything is Possible.
'LISTEN to the Music!'
- Written by Philip Al-Hajj

Thursday, November 10, 2011


Contemplations, Considerations         From Marauder #2 - Nov 2011
Consider for a moment that the planet we live on is not just a big blue ball of material suspended in the cosmic jello that is space. The planet we live on is, like a puzzle with a trillion pieces, incredibly complex, and ever changing. Everything from the insects that roam the ground unseen, to the trees that provide us with oxygen, while filtering the sky's Co2 to allow us fresh air, to humanity's very perception of the planet itself, the energy that feeds it, and our role in it. November 2011 marks the 7 billion mark of the world population (doubled in the last 50 years). 7 billion humans roam the earth, making hundreds of decisions each day, some small and insignificant, others perhaps, will one day lead to monumental effects on the planet, on humanity. It is constant energy that ever feeds and bends the direction of the future. As this energy flows on a global scale, individuals interact physically as well as unconsciously; impacting and influencing one another positively or negatively. Every thought and decision the mind makes is a small but important part of the evolution of our species. When a painter sees a landscape in their mind and completes the final brushstroke on their canvas, an energy is released. An idea, a point of view is realized, and a feeling is expressed. When this art is shown at a gallery, people stand in front of it, and wonder, what was the artist trying to say, what emotions went into their art, what were they feeling, what am I feeling when I see this? In creating, the artist has inspired insight, self exploration and empathy. The emotions that come out of the viewer are released and absorbed by the people around them as well as the painting and room they stand in. Creation and Evolution working together; not at all two different views after all!

Interesting fact; 2010 Carbon Dioxide output exceeds worst-case scenario said one study.  Another interesting fact is that US corporations have recorded record high profits, the highest ever officially documented. 1 Billion people can’t feed themselves today. How do we make sense of it all and decide. Decide on what is truly right and wrong. Have an evolution of collective thought to determine the balance we as humans must reach between need and luxury to make us feel true happiness. We should explore our need to connect and become one with our home, our Earth and everyone in it. Most people never explore this part of themselves, truly looking inward, to better understand who they are. Others have striven a lifetime for a true understanding of themselves. How can you strive to understand the people, the world around you, if you do not understand who you are? How can you truly understand yourself, if you do not strive to understand others. Their environment, climate, culture. We are all part of each other. We were all born from one seed on this planet no matter what back story you want to use to explain its existence.

This world, humanity itself, is still very young. Cultures have always been thriving, and are now melding together through the spread of information and ease of travel. Borders and walls cannot stop the energies that pass through us every second of our living days; always absorbed and filtered by our minds, bodies, and hearts. In order for an evolution of thought to take place we must completely connect with ourselves, which means completely connecting with everything around you. We need to learn how to communicate with our surroundings the same way we communicate with ourselves everyday while absorbing information, energy, creating, and evolving. 7 billion! We all know that change is inevitable but never easy, especially when you have no complete control over it. Life always finds a way to make it through for the better. Why not be aware of it? Be happy, appreciate, respect. Embrace change, evolve! Believe, express, and connect. Go for a walk, grow a vegetable, say hello.. say goodbye!
Suggested album to check out: Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra album "Security"
- Philip Al-Hajj

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

People and Politics                  From Marauder #1: October 2011
One does not need to venture very far to hear talks of uprising, resistance, and zombies all coming together to form what today’s Internet culture is thinking. Headlines of government sites being hacked, protesting in the streets and governments continuing their endless goal to conquer and suppress through shameless violence is triggering a Genesis; a type of world revolution that we have never seen before. Power Outages, Natural Disasters, Pollution, Murder, and War have been turned into a reality TV show but always filtered through bureaucratic firewalls in order to hide the full truth and pretend like everything is ‘just fine’.  On the laptop screens though, it’s a different story. The internet and computers have connected ‘people’ in every level; social, artistic, sexual, personal, educational, and political in all countries in a new organized and democratic manner that we have never seen before. When someone in New York takes a video on their Chinese made Iphone of a cop beating peaceful protestors it’s instantaneously seen by a young Greek teenager hundreds of miles away at their local internet café, while video chatting with a young law student in Lahore Pakistan at her school library. Each individual is simultaneously realizing that all governments are attacking their own and it doesn’t matter who you are and what type of country you’re in; be it, 1st or 3rd world. It’s happening everywhere and the only way to react is to either change the way we live our lives or blindly accept and follow someone else’s view of how we should live. People hear change and they get worried. Just like everything in life, if you want to get to the top you need to start on the bottom. If we as humans want to really change something globally, we need to literally start at our roots. Everything from the food we eat, the things we buy, the things we throw away, the jobs we have, the things we say, to the energy we release and absorb. We are and always have been a channel connecting the physical to the spiritual in this big ball of energy we call our planet. Just like her, we need a reset; an ice age but in an intellectual way. I have personally recently experienced the existence of this Intellectual Revolution all the way from Beirut, to the small island of Cyprus to the great nations of Canada and the US and it is spreading in full force. People are refusing to accept their lives as is and would rather build them themselves. Everyone is talking, listening and is preparing for what could possibly be a global uprising one country at a time, one mind at time, one hard drive at a time. I’m afraid to say that more lives will be sacrificed and it is only the beginning, for when the powerful realize what is really happening in their own back yard they will release their uniformed zombies to feast. The difference now is how we react. Do we pick up a gun and shoot back? Do we hide in a bunker in the middle of the desert until it blows over? Then there’s the question of violence versus peace, something we’ve been dreaming of for centuries.  It’s a fine line and we are, after all, bred to fight, win and dominate our planet. What everyone forgets is that we are merely a fraction of a grain of sand in the Universes that surround us and at the end of the day nature will decide our fate. Until then though, we cannot stand idle and watch our race destroy itself. Fear is merely a psychological reaction to the fact that we will have to give up luxuries in order to restore balance and not only live on, but be one with our world and to love everything in it. Language and distance are no longer barriers. We all, as humans in this fragile home, need to spread our message and ideas, we need to make a change and independently let the system know that it will not work unless we accept it.
This is why we make art, this is why WE make Music.
- Philip Al-Hajj