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Giovanni Almonte — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:22:21 +0000

learn to live. learn to play. learn to ride. this life is an ebb & flow, our psyche & ego the board we ride on. learn to flex. learn to move with the motion of the universe. the universe is information. use it without judgement, in joy, in love and in pain. it's all information, all a gift given by you. we choose.

i try.

as i teach i learn to be my word. to be the word given to me, whispered from the lips of the godhead. all is all, including me, see...we are who we've been waiting for. so i am officially on vacation from my past and my future. ears open to the sound of what surrounds me and nothing else. trying to be honest, and by honest i mean true to me. i'm trying hard to make it easy.

like flow...

like spirit "as is"

like Original or a copy handmade with love and intention.

i surrender my regrets and expectations. the war is over. right now wins.

hallelujah.

crisis

Giovanni Almonte — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:37:00 +0000

this word is used a lot lately. so much that it can be agreed that we actually live in it. in crisis.

but i don't feel in crisis.

the reality i live and the reality i hear and see on tv is growing further and further apart and now i see it. because sometimes you have to go far in order to see clearly. and what i see is that there is no crisis. crisis is an invention. a contrivance. a buzz word repeated until it becomes real.

see how powerful we are… we can say something over and over again until it becomes real.

so why would anyone want "crisis" to be true? and what "crisis" are we talking about exactly?

most of us would say crisis is the economy. war. disease. oil. pollution. population. food. but i know that this is not true. these are not the problems themselves, they are symptoms of the problem. the crisis we are in is spiritual. and by spiritual i mean our relationship to each other and nature in connection to our inner mind, sometimes called the heart. sounds retarded doesn't it? but retarded is how it's supposed to sound so that we never figure it out.

"spirit is for hippies for religious folk for song and dance but not for life. what is spirit in the face of war and economy?"

everything.

because if we were good with our spirit we would be good with our Selves and each other. we would understand one another and the nature of nature. there is no mystery we cannot comprehend in this world, i promise. so you don't have to be afraid. society will not collapse when the dollar falls. humans won't die when the nuclear reactors melt down. for every poison there is an antidote. we don't need nuclear power. we don't need oil. so why fight and die for it? we are not in crisis if we do not choose to be. economy is an agreement. an agreement between everyone to value the money above all else.

by the way, you are not free if you have to pay to live.

and money does not have value unless we, as a collective human race, say it does. we do not have war unless we agree to have enemies. we do not have disease if we choose to live healthy. but you don't know what health is! because to the modern man health is low carb and calorie counting. it's diet everything and organic blah blah blah. health is…

the earth.

health is eating what the earth makes the way that earth makes it. it's alkaline and beautiful and cures everything that man does not make in a lab. i swear it. but you won't believe me, because then you will be the one to blame. there will be no cancer to point your finger at, no government to rebel against, no corporation to hang on the rope.

we, each one of us, chose this life and live it accordingly.

if this makes sense to you, then congratulations. you are on the path of the true human being and there's no turning back once you're on it. me and my friends, we're here too. and so are a lot of people and more everyday. that's the beauty of this time; as it gets worse, it also gets better. :)

if it does not make sense to you then learn quickly. assume responsibility for everything even if it's not your fault because being a victim serves no one, especially not yourself. notice the difference between what is true because it "is" and what is true because you've been told and told and told and told and...

well...

welcome to the matrix brother, sister. i am. selfishly in service to you and everyone.

love.

- g

solution

Giovanni Almonte — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:21:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-iBFUkWsc4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

children of the sun

Giovanni Almonte — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 04:32:00 +0000

children of the sun… we are. illuminated. within as we are without. i stare into the sun. i do. my eyes stay open, even as it burns, but in doing so i feel the fire within me stir. we are connected. everything is. i've heard it said the biggest illusion of all is that we are separate. i did not understand, but i believed. and now as i grow, i have shed the belief in exchange for the knowledge that this is true. we are all one. when i look at you, i see the sun. when i speak to you i hear the song of the human story. ever notice how every story is the same? the characters, places and time change but the story remains essentially the same. we as one, live it billions of times in every way possible exhausting every possible variable and outcome as we collide into each other, killing and loving as we were meant to do and learn... i can see the cycle forward so clearly now. i am grateful for this life. i will miss it when it's gone. i will look back at these few years and laugh at the sorrow and anxiety and feel proud and the love and passion i lived. if i could only remember my place always. if i could only shake the years of being taught i was only human. if i could hang on to the feeling that i am god. maybe i will remember better now that i can see the god in you. in each person that i see. in every action, there is the sacred. i see you so that i see myself.

all my searching has led me here
to this river mirror
that reflects my fears
god is here in me
and so i sing my dreams
i am everything
i am king
lyrics from "soldier" by me.

goodnight.

- g

the illusion of legitimacy

Giovanni Almonte — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:41:00 +0000

freedom is not flag
freedom is not law
there is no constitution that can guarantee liberty
whether we call it facism, communism, or democracy
power is what men seek

power to define and deny the people
their humanity

life is a beautiful struggle
and through every shadow lies lesson
and if you listen
in the dissonance there is harmony

we can fill our book with rules and ideology
we can fill our minds with science and philosophy
but if our souls are not whole then what we will live is...
psychopathy

our shadows left to their own devices
become the beast that feed on vices
and your world becomes reflection
of the war within
the violence begins when we fail to listen
to the wisdom etenal and forever within
each of us

there may be no freedom
because our journey seems written
but no man should have the right to stand
in the way of our story
live in your truth
and you live in the glory
of the true human being

- g

the idealist speaks!

Giovanni Almonte — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:24:00 +0000

to paraphrase howard zinn, "an idealist is someone who considers what is possible based on all the options that exist. a pragmatist considers what is possible based on what that person is allowed to do by the powers that be."

i miss him.

me and my friends, we live life very very differently from the mainstream. this is good and bad. mostly difficult. we are very much idealist and seek truth. we seek knowledge. for me, everything i do is a learning and a path towards self discovery; it is through knowledge of the self that we attain knowledge of all. my mind is wide open to possibility and we get to talking about ideas and concepts that are so far removed from the norm that i often think "if a regular person heard us talking right now they would be losing their goddamn mind."

sometimes i try to communicate some of these concepts and possibilities to friends or family and sometimes get back negativity and even resentment. i think it is a great thing to doubt. for example if i say to you, "we didn't evolve from monkeys, we were genetically engineered by aliens" it is very reasonable for you to think, "i don't believe it." and well of course you shouldn't believe it just cus i say it. but neither should you believe we came from monkeys just because a teacher said it.

EVERYONE EVERYWHERE HAS THEIR MOTIVES FOR DOING AND SAYING THINGS. WE ARE ALL PRODUCTS OF OUR HISTORY.

the implications of what i just wrote there in caps are many and i would like for it to be contemplated.

you are born into this world empty, full of wonder and accepting. the world is already full when you get here. full of history, ideas, family expectations, societal rules, established styles and culture, etc, etc. when a baby is born, we fill them with the concepts and knowledge we were filled with that came from what our parents were filled with and back and back. it would be wise to follow the line of those things we learn and connect the motives. especially when it comes to history.

when you connect the motives to history you often find something closer to the truth just underneath.

this is something i learned in school: "history is written by the winners"

doesn't get more honest than that.

we should seek the history that is not connected to the winners. we should seek the history of the people and not the organizations and governments that seek to shape and form ideas to their needs.

if you're inclined, read this book that changed my life. it's called "propaganda: the formation of men's attitude" i can't imagine someone reading this and not seeing the truth and effectiveness that propaganda has over the mass consciousness. and in case you don't know, the mass consciousness is you and me and everyone.

shit is no joke.

point is, we do ourselves a disservice by not questioning the thoughts and ideas implanted into our psyche since our youth.

look, some people get angry because of what i say, as if it is an attack on their person... but i guess it's because opennes, questioning, doubt and contemplation ARE an attack. just not an attack on a person, but on manipulative mass thought implant/control. sometimes someone will say something to me that makes me angry and luckily life has taught me that this anger occurs because there is truth to what was said. i try to make it a point to look within myself for the reason i get angered and often find that there is value and lesson in what that person said to me.

finally...what i say is because i think it will help people. i often read books, see movies, magazines, hear songs that have a bad motivation. it's like people find these systems of belief because they NEED something to believe in. they make up their minds and commit to ideals that they propagate in order to make it more true. the more believers/followers they get the more true their beliefs become and then they define themselves on this and it becomes a matter of power.

i don't care for power at all. i know that what is important is not to BE powerful but to FEEL powerful, and that comes from within. i don't want to change your mind to be like mines i just want us to be free. i understand there is no such thing as freedom, because life is borrowed so it was never ours to begin with. but i believe it is a choice whether we be slaves to creation or men. to be a slave to creation is to be as free as man can be. i am an idealist. i see what is possible. i also know that life is not about a lifetime. we are each of us an expression of life itself and what i want most is for life to FEEL right for all human beings for as long as human beings are alive. the thoughts we keep are seeds that grow into the future. and one day our seed will be a tree.

something wrong with me

Giovanni Almonte — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 09:23:00 +0000

there must be something wrong with me… because i like the snow. because i like the cold. because i like to take 5 flights of stairs instead of an elevator. because i don't watch tv. because i don't like the radio. or commercials. there must be something wrong with me because i don't need laws. because i don't believe in religion. because i despise money. because i'm embarrassed by my ego. there must be something wrong with me because i don't read, instead i write. because i don't believe in a college education. because i will not trust a doctor. because i do not take pills. i don't care for the city. i just care for it's people. there's something wrong with me because i write rock, i sing rock music i love the sound of rock but i hate rock bands. there must be something wrong with me because i love my community but prefer my space. because i go far to feel near. because my god is in me, and it is here, deep within that i learn about everything. there must be something wrong with me because my knowledge has no school. because i have no hero, no master, no teacher except for one and then me. there must be something wrong with me because i don't want to be safe. because i don't avoid getting hurt. because i think it's good to fight. good to get angry. good to feel all of your feelings because if you don't then your feelings become monsters that eat your soul and the soul of the people around you. because i don't like the word god. i've never trusted it, even as a child. i must be wrong because i think vocalist are the worst singers. because i don't believe in evolution. because i don't believe history, but i'd love to learn herstory. the story of the mother because i'm sick of the story of man. there's something wrong with me because i am not attracted to vampires, not in movies or books or games. the idea of beings that feed on humans is despicable to me. the reality that humans feed on each other is as low as i can imagine life becoming. i don't need to be reminded at every movie, video game and conversation of our capacity for violence. i must be wrong because i want to know the unknown because i want to stretch my mind and earn my joy, i want to think about my music i want to taste food that i don't recognize and love culture i've never known. i must be wrong because i feel wrong when i live "right". because i feel opposite of almost all that i see.

i must be wrong because i am not confused.

i must be wrong because i am never lost to my purpose or my people.

i must be wrong because even though i have nothing, i am king.

an interview i did with batanga

Giovanni Almonte — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:33:00 +0000

i googled myself tonight for the first time in a very long time and i am extremely surprised by the amount of stuff i found. including this interview i'd totally forgotten about:

Click here to see the interview

proudest monkey

Giovanni Almonte — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:22:00 +0000

well...i feel very proud of my nomination for best latin jazz vocalist and next generation artist of the year on latin jazz corner. more so than anything else i've been featured in because it's the most real. chip boaz loves latin jazz and has a whole lot of knowledge about this music. his opinion matters so much more than, i dunno... people magazine for example. to see my name on the same list as isaac delgado is... extremely flattering and humbling. i don't expect to win anything, but who cares. i'm on the same list as the guy that wrote 'sandunguita'.

shit is crazy.

so if you've got some time to kill go on over to: http://www.chipboaz.com/blog/best-of-2010/ and vote for your favorites.

i'd like to mention that my label truth revolution records was also nominated for label of the year AND my friend panagiotis andreou is nominated for bassist of the year. hell to the yeah he is.

aight y'all.

- g

cd release

Giovanni Almonte — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:57:00 +0000

It was, overall, a really great concert. i loved the musicians i shared the stage with, i loved that so many people came out, the club was packed...it was a great night and i had a lot of fun.

but the next is intense. i'm putting together all the video footage leading up to the show as well as the show itself. but my computer is ancient so it takes tiiiiiiiime.

then there natalie's new album that we go into the studio tomorrow morning to record. i'm happy it's happening, she's an amazing singer and cai wrote some very cool arrangements for her. i'm not so happy about the waking up at 8am part. it's 2:15am as i write this...

anyway, thanks to everyone who came and made the night so memorable. i am grateful that so many amazing players played with me up on that stage. mike rodriguez, andy hunter, obed calvaire, the pana, ray west, reinaldo dejesus, julie acosta, AND osmany paredes??? you couldn't get a better band if you had all the money in the world. i am a blessed soul to have access to such an incredible amount of talent. these are really new york cities finest.

goodnight for now.

- g