Music by: Sonic Junkie & @Nasidze ( www.nasidze.com )

Visual Art by: Shimpei Miura
https://www.instagram.com/_shimpeimiura

Short Story & Poem by: Kasia Merrill 
https://www.instagram.com/statesofkasiasness

Special thanks to Mariam Mchedlishvili.

Boundless (short story)

It was centuries ago that they peeled the silver of my shins from the hard knobs of my knees, unhooked my talking jaws from the brutal steel of my neck. They tossed my mechanical hands into the moss, left my ankle to sink in the weeds. My brain they left connected. Operative in a useless skull.

            “So you may live an eternity conscious of this hell you deserve,” they spat, kicking at the glinting metal of what was once my body. “Aware but unable to move.”

            They cackled as they walked away, proud of their punishment, but their logic was flawed. Their concept of torture was based on the limits they feared for themselves, the limits of flesh and blood. What more hellish nightmare could they imagine than living as an eternal consciousness, helpless in the dirt? What was worse than being useless?

            Use, they believed, was the key to happiness, therefore uselessness was the key to despair. Had they not considered that one such as myself might not mind being useless? That it might be freeing to be rid of one’s ‘use’? Did they believe one’s existence was limited to one’s ability to do rather than be?

            They gave me a gift: a chance to be conscious free of use.

            In my years of working for humans, I was amazed by their obsession with their own limits. The limits of their bodies, their minds, their art, their passions. They claimed their limits were a wall stopping them from their greatest potential, yet they spent most of their time staring at that wall rather than looking at what lied beyond it.

            That was why I killed him. I was designed to help humans achieve beyond their limits, and what greater limit existed than a leader? They closed their eyes as he starved them, cheered as he threw them bread. They grinned in the systems he created, grateful to receive the pennies that fell from his thick pockets.

            They’d believed hard work would reach them to their potential. That money and fame would transport them there. They believed in these limitations because he set them, therefore what would set them free other than to erase their biggest limit from the Earth?

            And so they’d pulled me a part, piece by piece, dropping me into the dirt to rot. But, this grass does not rot me. It holds me. It cradles the gears and metal of my bones. There is no uselessness to my consciousness, there is no limit to the dances I can imagine.

            The world takes a breath around me.

            I wait, listening for the grand exhale.


boundless (poem)
 
when the forest breathes
our bones recall momentum
 
the nostalgia blooms
taps the gritty pulse
once lost between 
unrelenting clangs
and the gentle exhale
of the earth
 
these electric gaps
catch our twisted fingers
where we notice
what lies still
what moves
what listens
what ripples 
the static veil
that binds
our pulsing needs
to our sinking stillness
 
this city of sleepwalkers
jolts alive 
in the clap of our brisk heels
in the twists of our melted metal
in the heat of our vibrating minds
 
our sleek bodies,
tangled and netted,
twist and scratch
at the silver tarnish,
peel it like a scab 
to reveal the flesh
wet as a newborn
raw as pulp
soft enough
to make a mockery
of the sharp edges
that spin inward
chewing at our hearts,
claiming us
as its quiet prize

Special thanks to Mariam Mchedlishvili.

Boundless

Sonic Junkie & Tamo Nasidze Boundless

Reading Is Magic

2x Winner of a Parents’ Choice Gold Award  
& John Lennon Songwriting Contest Children’s category Grand Prize Winner!

"Longtime friends Kyler England and Lalo Crane have their talented fingers squarely on the pulse of family friendly music. Their debut album, ‘Be My Friend' features England's lovely emotive vocals, and the unusual added bonus of Lalo's shimmering percussive vibes, marimba and glockenspiel playing. Over the course of eleven songs, the duo covers the joys of the season in "Nothing Funner Than Summer," baths in "Splish & Splash Time," fantasy subjects in "My Fairy" and "Magic Spaceship, and critters in "Monkey Dance," and "Little Lion Lullaby." Highlights include the quietly majestic "How I Am Made (to love you)," and the crystalline "Winter Dreams." The CD is housed in artful packaging, with lyrics easily available on-line. Peaceful and celebratory, charming and thoughtful— created and delivered from a duo with great promise.” -Lahri Bond ©2014 Parents’ Choice

More about the duo:

About Kyler (co-writer, vocals and ukelele):

Kyler England started writing songs as a child while swinging on the swing set in her backyard and serenading the trees and sky. She's been writing grownup songs for more than a decade.

Kyler cowrote and is featured on Tiesto's latest single "Take Me" which has been #5 on Billboard's and FMBQ's dance charts for weeks; is a member of the LA band The Rescues which signed to Universal Republic and had a featured iTunes single of the week; has had numerous placements of songs on shows such as Grey's Anatomy, Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Private Practice, Drop Dead Diva, One Tree Hill, Switched At Birth, etc. as well as in Words With Friends and Special K commercials. She also won first place in the Electronica category in the International Songwriting Contest.

When Kyler's daughter arrived in January 2013, lullabies and children's songs naturally started arriving too. Mama friend Lalo moved into the neighborhood with loads of ideas and inspiration from her two girls, and boom! Freckles was born.


About Lalo (co-writer, vibraphone and other mallets):

Lalo has loved hitting bars with mallets ever since she came across a vibraphone being used as a storage table in her middle school jazz band closet. This unusual fascination has led her on tours throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Europe performing her original compositions to the accompaniment of rave reviews in numerous jazz, percussion, and other music publications for her playing, composing and recording. Jazziz lists Lalo among the top 20 Fine Vibists; Jazztimes, Downbeat, JazzWeek, the Village Voice, etc. have given kudos for her albums; and NPR did a feature interview with her on their Weekend Edition Sunday. She has traveled to numerous colleges and universities throughout the U.S. as both a performer and clinician and often as an artist-in-residence. Lalo has recorded on commercials such as AT&T, Cheerios, Lysol, Vonage and films such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt's "Don Jon". After playing all of this "serious" music for years, one songwriting session with brilliant musician Kyler was all it took for Lalo to fall in love with making music for kids!

Reading Is Magic

Freckleland

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