RATSACK aka Rat to the Siz Ak

Hello, and welcome to my page. I have been living and vibing mostly in Atlanta since about 2000. Gave up the international corporate office stuff about that time to get more into the vibe. I had fun playing the corporate game for 10 years in Sydney Australia, San Francisco and just a year in Atlanta. Before all that I got to do a bit of adventure travelling. Hitch hiked around Australia for a year after high school. That really opened me up to all the kindness out there, and the respect for being adventurous. People really respected me for being adventurous and treated me so well. At age 19, I lived in the Solomon Islands in a remote jungle island village with tribal indigenous family and community for 3 months. Here I was showered with the most amazing sense of generosity that one can imagine. I can still feel the power of those people, the deepest, blackest darkest nights and twinkling stars shining down and reflecting in the water, literally twinkling to the rhythm of the jungle insect nightlife. I was awestruck by the home made homes and houses weaved together out of jungle materials as a community project work of art. At age 21 I got to go to Thailand and study Tai Chi and Chi Kung for three months. Got to see India, also Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China for short stays. After the travelling I started working and saved up a deposit to buy a little apartment in Bondi Beach and renovated it to my liking, tore up the carpet and sanded the wooden floors and coated with natural non toxic oils - the kind they use in Europe and Asia to preserve wood into antiquity. mmmm it smelled and felt so good and looked nice too. Built a little loft bed, new kitchen and got to enjoy it for about a year. While in Atlanta, through Alternate Roots.org, I recently got to spend 3 months in Mexico part of which was with indigenous people in Chiapas in the south. They were so kind and cool. They are so open to sharing their land, which is full of pastures, jungles and fresh water jungle river. We have so much to learn from the indigenous people. I want to spend more time in these kinds of environments and be able to invite others to share in the experience. I'm learning about the ancient village design principles which is simply clustering people together in high density so that surrounding/adjoining land can be preserved for food production, wildlife and common open areas to socialize. Then within this larger village concept/reality, people are organized again into smaller neighborhood units that share a shared commonhouse structure for gatherings. A neighborhood is a smaller unit that enables everyone to know each other and be able to function as a close-knit unit. Several or more neighborhoods make up a community. Many communities can still make up a village, that is surrounded by plenty of food production in direct proximity. I want to start creating such places starting with one, starting with artists who can pave the way for others to see the light.Over the last 8 years I have created material that I have put together into a performance show of silly theatrical spoken word with music. This has been fun and this journey has allowed me access to all kinds of places filled with creativity and good vibes. This journey has included being featured on national American TV-HBO’s Def Poetry Jam (and the DVD’s of this show that are sold in stores), local Atlanta TV, various nightclubs, colleges, universities, high schools, elementary schools,fairs, fund raisers, festivals and festivities such as Martin Luther King Day celebrations, and other public and private events. I have been able to share the stage with countless underground spoken word artists such as Tony Award Winner Tamika Georgia Me, and several respected celebrities of other genres including Academy Award winner Jamie Fox,Grammy Award nominee India Arie, Tony Award winning actor Phylicia Rashad legendary soul artist and 7 times Grammy Award winner Gladys Knight, Emmy Award nominee comedian Dave Chappell and Hip Hop artists such as Grammy Award winner Kanye West, Mos Def, Common and Talib Kweli. During this time, I have been part of this community of artists in Atlanta who seem to have a shared commitment to the struggle of making positive changes to their communities, which has been a great inspiration and fertile learning ground.Since being in Atlanta I have been developing my festive earthen building events manual, a teambuilding program that is designed to strengthen community and revive festive earthen building methods such as cob, adobe, rammed earth. www.yeamerica.org/febe I've done events with communities in Atlanta, Mexico and my home town Stanwell Park in Australia.for the last 20 years I have been studying, practicing and teaching the meditation and exercise system of Master Mantak Chia www.universaltao.com This includes the darkroom enlightenment technology - to open up dormant parts of the brain as part of the journey to prepare for death and return to our source.I have a daughter who lives with her mother and two brothers and grandma in East Orange New Jersey. I enjoy visiting when I make the time.