According to Peak Evolution theory, PE, you path find, you observe you feel you look at the different optimizers and determine what they are communicating to you about what direction is driving you in. Sometimes I have a hard time with this one. optimizers = things like what other people are saying, how you feel—emotions, synchronistic events that transpire—things like coincidences, are things working out or no? she calls this path finding. You take an action and you see how it is received by nature or ‘the universe’ so to speak in order to better work with nature to achieve peak evolution, or go beyond peak performance. If things aren't working out, maybe someone/something is trying to tell you something. or an Avatar would say maybe you just need to discreate some beliefs that are in your way or impeding your progress to achieving what you want. Sometimes finding those beliefs is not as easy as saying that. lets put it that way. o.k. so according to PE theory, literally weeks after I decided to make the whole concept of the band change from Fishy, meaning more of just a Fishy thing, to Transcendence, meaning more of a group thing or a band vibe---this is why rise and shine and sleep with you have different band names---everything started to change and shift. But not in the way I expected at all.

I didn't see it at first. Couldn’t. So busy. Out there adrift in the sea of creations. And not understanding really how to read the optimizers like is explained in the PE book. Didn't think there were any optimizers. Everyday week there is this group conference call and it is free and it is people calling from all over the world to discuss and explore the PE concepts and methods and theories and practices. And I enjoy the calls and the interaction with others. But would always think ‘where are the optimizers? How do I find them? and how do I judge what they are?’ Today on the road, driving, music loud, bowie’s new one, Reality. Thinking of Vancouver. Always so busy with twenty other projects. The absolute worst thing you can have in a band. Someone who is in but not really in. Its divisive. It can rip apart any organization. I know this. but he is brilliant on guitar. But so are a lot of other guitarists. We are an amazing team though. We have made magic, and live in concert, its something to see, but he is in many other projects. And completely convinced that if given the opp he will go out on the road backing up the Latin singer whose music he doesn’t listen to and doesn’t really like one way or the other. But he will do it he says for the money and the opp to be out there on huge stages etc. o.k. so that's a rough one for everyone else to handle, not just because he will be leaving a lot of other projects behind while he is out on the road but also just because you lose respect for a musician when he goes that route.

You don't want to, but you just do. lot of cats down here do that, back up really cheesy Latin or pop singers that you won't find one CD in their own album collection at home, but they go out and do it anyway. like I already said or me and for other artists I know, they would rather be shot, but for some, they can do it. [note here---remember the piano man did this gig over the summer, actually lots of them, backing up some act called the earthman. This guy who gets dressed up in a big earth costume and dances around the stage singing kids songs or something. I think there are some musicians that can do this. they go to school they get their music degree and they don't care what they do they just want to work at music. And then there's this whole other school of thought, different types of musicians, the ones who don't go to school necessarily, they're in music for a different reason, not as much just ‘to work’ but more because it is their art, like painting or moviemaking or whatever, it is a passion for them, it is more like a religion. So you couldn’t force them at gunpoint to go on stage with a guy dressed up in an earth costume.

But I think that's because to them, and I'm one of them, in that school of thought, the art is more about the message the bigger picture of art as a message, or art as innovation or as a way of life, rather than the actual craft of music making. Not that I'm against guys that do that, cause I'm not. Music is music. They're just totally different schools of thought. You think of someone like Bono or the edge and you get the feeling that to them they wouldn’t be playing weddings or backing up Latin singers even if they had to do it to make money, they would still be creating magic and messages and mayhem with or without big or even little money. Its all about the genius of it rather than the money or work or craft of it. this is just the way it is for true artists. Period. end of note.]

so back to the optimizers. I'm driving this morning. And I'm reflecting on the band. The band has been in constant change for years. constant fucking change. For years and years and years. people come in and people go. you don't want it to be that way, but it is. its not like the old days, like in Shattered. When we were one band. One for all and all for one. like the old glory days of rock, with bands like Zep and the Beatles and the stones etc... just a totally different trip. Guys these days are like o.k. guys see ya I'm going on the road with Britney spears, and the guys in the band are like ‘yeah right whatever. and he's like no seriously they just called. I'm leaving on Sunday and everyone’s like but you hate that music. And the guy is like yeah I know but it’s a good opp....’ this is happening to bands all the time now. that's why a lot of times if you notice on the bands albums the players are always changing from album to album or sometimes they don't even show a picture of the band anymore, because the lineup changes so much. Just the singer. cause sometimes that's the only member that sticks it out. Look at Foo fighters, or Ours. Similar to the whole free agent thing in sports now. where the players don't have that loyalty to their town or to their team, they just take the highest bid. It’s a fucking sad affair in human history. But plenty of people will try their best to try to justify it to you because of “the money.” perpetuating the money myth. Same old story, for thousands of years. its been the bane of our existence since we’ve been here.