VOR: When hungry Eat, when tired sleep. When tired sleep, when hungry eat; this is the doctrine of those who are in accord with the universe, sparsely practiced by the common man. Oh yes, the common man. Now it may seem that this is a work contrived with the sole intent of exploiting the flaws of the majority of people. However, it is much more accurate to say that we are working with matters that concern the individual; being a good person, or simply doing what is right. But not right as defined by society for the public has never really searched for the good people, no, but rather right as defined by one’s self. And so we embark on a voyage triggered by an undeniable internal dissonance; a dissonance to which the external world only acts as a catalyst, so we look within. This journey starts by letting go of an overt connection kept alive by tradition in vain. It is not easy nor settling; It takes courage to carve the deepest of valleys, but so unexpected do the peaks of the most grand mountains form. And somewhere along the way a bond may be formed more strong and more real than the ties that need to be broken; all achieved by asking the most important questions, the questions to which we may never find the answers, but the search gets us moving. And with all this being said, I would like to welcome you: this is the story of the Tortoise.

A state of oblivion, a place that they’re all in. Caught in a superficial train of thought now let’s watch As my friends tell me what’s hot and what’s not They’re pacing blind and I am distraught. Tell em’ to fuck off Brains rot. This is food for thought And it’s obvious that they’re not very hungry so back off. An influx of pain, I wrongfully blame It must suck to be tame seeking nothing but fame. No one knows my name but fuck them and they’re game. And who would dare act like they care? But we live in a square and they’re unaware Trapped in trivial affairs a geometric nightmare. I’m out of my element feeling completely irrelevant. My mood is fowl, growl, howl like Ginsberg. America is going down like the Hindenburg. Watch the kids flock to the box, I watch from up top like a hawk. Moloch!

I'm happy in my shell because it fits well. No need to rebel because I feel no hell. Neutral brains don't feel pain because they all look the same and are therefore considered sane. I feel free and that's enough for me; even if it's just an illusion that I see. It gives me a sense of security. Complying is a sign of maturity in a world where it makes no sense to think adversely. Verse 1: I'm a castaway at sea, physically free but essentially dead mentally. Through the fog it is hard to see. In this smog it is hard to breath. But that's what happens when necessity meets extremity. Now a masters degree? That's not for me, I'm talking PHD to benefit the futures number one employee. So proud is my family as they stare at my big screen TV. Release from my daily grind is vine, instagram, snap chat. Check me out in my snap back and this funny fat cat. They give me a false sense of life back. And my friends call me a dumb ass but they're cool, they don't mean it. Plus I need a click to fit with so I can be told who to be, subconsciously. And I need someone to love me. Plus I need someone to shove me so I can get caught up in the petty bullshit of my kind. And I find It’s easiest just letting someone else use my mind. While I sip on the wine thinking everything will be fine. Let the doctors sew up their sutures for my future. Living in sorrow; give today for tomorrow. Chorus 1: It's the clutch of the combine; its subtle twine is wrapped around your mind but you’re oblivious the whole time. Clutch, clutch clutch of the combine, of the combine. 2X Man, you know what I figured out a long time is that the people who have the real control in this educational system they don't really give a fuck about whether or not I learn anything. They just want me to be here for a set number of hours so they can pass me on down the assembly line. And at the end of the day of I end up not learning anything it ends up being convenient for them because an uneducated mind is an obedient mind and an obedient mind is easier to govern. Verse 2: Listen to me scream and shout about how my generation suffering institutionalization. Lack of creation. Too much consuming. No doubt business is booming but I warn that's most important to Orwell's society. But do you see what I see? Up on the horizon; it's a rising sun. Which we must now turn away from. Time to succumb. Approach the front. Mind numb. Enter the asylum. Swelling veins but I’m not insane just kept here in vain. And I used to get so mad and tense through my core but now I just sigh and stoop to the floor. I'm trapped here by heavy doors so there's no point trying to escape anymore. And I have a passion that I can't fully pursue. Instead I must plant my ass in class next to you. Oh no but they tell me that I’m free to go at sixteen. School is all that I know. With two years left like where do I go? How about to the woods to live like Thoreau where I’m truly alone and can finally just let go. Then all of the sudden there we go, I scream: land ho! Forget my religion and every premeditated decision. Abolition of indecision. Steady ignition. Maintain ambition. No more submission to this system that we transcend and take flight above all the petty infatuations of life. And with me it is you that I would like to invite to fly like a kite. The neutral minds we excite. Chorus 2: We're indifferent to the clutch of the combine therefore we defy the clutch of the combine. 4X Now it usually goes that the hermit is the person who is said to be in a shell; hiding in a fetal position from the game of the common man. But if you ask a hermit about his shell he will reply, "Shell? What shell? The reason I seek solitude is to emancipate myself mentally from a shell that is much more common. The man that says I'm in a shell is truly the tortoise. Those who are most oblivious to their shells are the ones who cling to them the most; a metaphorical combine that consumes the better part of a man in mass quantities". But sensibly aren't we all, as a race, in a shell; floating on a rock through darkness? And so he who is in accord with this idea is self actualized. So if I inform someone who is in denial about their shell that they will fall asleep tonight never to awake again, then they will quickly drop everything and try to do what they truly wanted because before now they have not worked at it at all. They were too busy clinging to something that will be lost anyways. But if I told the hermit the same exact thing he will continue on with his day as if I said nothing at all because he already lives how he wants to.

VOR: It can be of great value to go outside of ourselves and try to define ourselves as if we are someone else entirely - try and bite our own teeth or to touch the tip of our right forefinger to the tip of our right forefinger- and see what it is that makes us feel like individuals, or whether or not it's phony. Chrous: His name is Tri-Stan and he transcends. For him time bends as vanity ends. His sanity pends until his ego blends when the mist and the mountains become his friends. He's the Tri-Standentalist. Yes, the Tri-Standentalist: Never will diss and he's never been kissed but he gets the jist of what some think is missed as he holds the sun in his fist and questions happiness, now does it truly exist? Verse: Uncovering lies, a liberator of lives. Known to be true though the tears in the eyes of the wives of every modern day suitor guy that dies. Tri-Stan vies and that's when he realized he's just like Odysseus. Not pernicious but a destroyer of men. A supporter of Zen. A comedian and now he's mad with a pen; he stabbed the pointy end into the arm of this kid named Ben. Ben is now in the hospital getting treated for ink poisonen. he lie compulsively every now and again; yesterday his impregnated a hen and if the fetus lives then he's going to name the son Darren, or if it's a girl she shall be called Sharon. But all jokes aside there resides something much deeper down inside. Always contemplating and debating life, death, and crystal meth. And how it would be best if it was all made legal. But no, fatally feeble is the human cerebral that says, "drugs are evil". A slow moving lethal needle injected right into the chest. So let’s just speed up the process: elect Bill O'reilly into the oval office. He'll fuck things up for sure and start a nuclear war so the humans won't have to deal with themselves anymore. That's right, Tri-Stan is not a fan of man- kind. Manifested in the cynical rhyme. Not sadistic, just realistic. And most would agree that the kid with his wrists slit needs help but it's ironic cuz we seem to be working towards our demise; committing suicide, which we say is cowardly but open your eyes. The people who say save the planet, really mean save the humans. But hold on a second. It has just occurred that by trying to define himself Tri-Stan has described everyone else. He now knows what Alan Watts means by saying, "other implies self". But the problem is that when he looks out he can't confide in others because all that he sees is a prick of a Big Brother. But with his best friend every sixth weekend he is one again. And so he is nobody, bound to no body. Like the leaf that brussels in the breeze on the tree, or the fish that spreads his fins and is free with the sea. And long gone after the day that Tri-Stan is buried forever drawn and on the circles will continue to carry. Chorus

VOR- "you possessed of sturdy intellect, observe the teachings hidden here beneath the veil of verses so obscure" (from Dan Brown's 'Inferno'). Verse 1: Now we're gonna smoke some J's. (yeah okay/ hooray!) That is not okay. No it's okay because I got straight A's on my last Trimester grades so it makes sense to use our off days to sit back and blaze (that makes very little sense). But wait, I'm not a thug. Don't smoke. Not sure why I mentioned drugs. I need a hug. Shit no. Anxiety attack something's about to stab me in the back. I need to get back on track. I've fallen off a cliff into a bottomless abyss of constantly being pissed because my intellect has been stripped or perhaps just mis- placed. God damnit, get me out of this place. I had an important message to convey but I forgot what I was gonna say. Chorus: I watched a one arm fat kid learn how to ride a bike on TV today I think we're wasting away I use the word gay as an insult to make fun of my enem[ays] Wasting away I'm trying to be poetic but my brain has been turned into viscous clay. We're wasting away Constant reminders of reality causes the manifestation of dreams to fade away. I swear to god we're wasting away. Verse 2: It's like a sickness invading my brain. I go insane when I see these kids playing these mundane Iphone games; wasting hours a day on something so lame. Now if this is you, please go back the same way that you came: return to the womb as I direct you to your mothers poon; you persist in a tomb so let’s zoom way out. Disconnect the intellect that has fallen victim to neglect. Create an overview effect. Realize the mass defect that is the failure of most people to live out their true potential. Which is essential to the obtaining of happiness; a desire I’m no longer sure exists. So fuck living truthful lives because we want lies, bloodied knives, and children's cries because life, it's a drama and the plot is a mind game and half of us don't even try playing. But thanks anyway for paying. You know it's the 21st century so why the fuck are we still praying? Well, it's cuz' we're still obeying. Passionless and actionless you must confess that many acquiesce in excess. Now that the creator is cashing in. As if social networking is a psychological assassin. But the superficial don't understand this slightest abstraction but too bad, this song doesn't have a caption. Chorus Verse 3: Reality can suck sometimes, but you have a powerful mind so climb inside. You may find what mankind cannot fathom the words to describe. Synthesize until your ideas materialize in front of your eyes. I'm ravenous for truth and knowledge, but I have been told that in order to be successful nowadays I need college. Well I got a 1460 on my cumulative SAT so I guess there is nothing left for me to be except attached to the TV. (commercial break) Well forgive me for not knowing about the bourgeoisie but I have to disagree with this educational philosophy: give the kid an A so his mom can reward him for the good grades then he keeps up that charade- for about 12 years he stays that way. And eventually it’s almost time to graduate; he doesn't really remember what he learned the previous 11 years but he doesn't care because he volunteered and that’s what colleges love to hear. Wearing that gown and cap. And don't forget the fucking blue sash because next year it’s off to Quinnipiac. Now I ask: What do you hope to accomplish by doing this? What do you aspire to be? I don't know I just want lots of money. Then you realize and say: "oh my fucking god we really are wasting away". We are the most uninspiring people; obviously deprived but we seem to be alive but definitely not living, just trying to survive. Now how do you survive this industrialized habitat? Well first you must learn to adapt; study really hard and memorize all this random crap. And maybe one day you will be able to afford that Cadillac. But then you realized that the system has stabbed you in the back. Despite the fact that you thrive with all this money ain't it funny how you committed suicide at age 55 because you realized that there is really no point merely trying to survive. Chorus Outro: VOR- it is a discordant system and it does not want us to mention it. But forget that. Do not step to it. Unknowingly, half of us are desperate to exit it. And that's it man. That's all I gotta say. And by the way the fat kid with the one arm, he uh, ended up learning how to ride the bike so good for him. I just don't know why I was watching it or why it was on TV. I need to be out accomplishing my own goals. You know what I mean? Living my own life, not watching some reproduction of it on a digital screen. You know what I mean? Yeah. Live your life.

Head tilted towards the ground, slight frown. Thoughts in the clouds; little chance of coming down. I'm walking in a crowd but this place is a ghost town. Now, is it worth saving? Yes, no, maybe so? Shit, I don't know. Let’s ask Plato: VOR: We need those who can see in the dark, for men will always fight for power, in the shadows. All I see are preppy pricks. Abercrombie & Fitch. I'm ripped says the jock to the chick with the big tits. Flawed leadership and because of this slipping grip. A sinking ship. And a whole art form is going down with it. You want modern popular music? (yeah) Prepare to see every part of Miley except for her nips and her clitoris. Yo, fuck this. Let’s all act like we're pissed. Someone please tell me what the point of this is. Cuz I was simply thrown in the mix and in this box I don't fit. We're all in the battlefield and I'm dead in a ditch. Existence is... a glitch. Verse 2: Clenched fists. Internally twist. Bound at the wrists. Happinessless. A life of bliss? Yeah right, make a wish for this is what it means to fully enlist. Trying to cope, we mope. The butt end of a petty joke. Yeah life sucks now but God gives us hope. Not convinced with esoteric folks who know it's a hoax spiteful words sit at the backs of most throats. The warlike mentality proceeds to provoke. That's why the kids spark note. Don't ask them to read cuz they won't. Fuck it, scramble the yoke. And that shitty sports coach who destroys a childlike love when all junior can think of is stabbing coach mike in the face. Take him from a happy place. Drama consumes the psyche leaving nothing but waste. Survival of the fittest, this shit is a race with no finish; it only distorts a clear image. Verse 3: Here's how you identify a lost soldier: drop an American off next to a boulder on the shoulder of a road outside of Mexico city. He greets the town with a frown thinking it's shitty cuz there aren't as many Q-tips with perky tits and hair all neat. There's a man in bare feet. How's he supposed to compete in a race with a man and his nonchalant face. Something's off here; it's the day of the dead and they cheer but he feels fear. He's offered a beer and lets down his veneer. Now whether it's an intention to secure a pension, or a need for attention, it all comes from oppression. A pathetic obsession to march like a penguin. Wage war with belly shirts and mini-skirts. (that shit can't be comfortable) Flirt fucker flirt. While the soldier removes his vest and meets a mysterious zest in a place where the war is taken less serious. VOR: This whole 'war zone' thing, it’s really all just an illusion; it's just a game. Distressed Soldier: Yeah, but it's so goddamn real I can't escape it. VOR: Well that's not true; you can escape it, just, it's a little less fun to call it quits.

(dream) VOR: We seem to be experiencing some eye motion. REM cycle? Yes. REM cycle initiated. Into the subconscious we go. A trip into the inner sanctum. Tell us, what do you see? At the foot of a stairwell, leading to the heavens, is a catholic man and his seven angry brethren. Detestful expressions are on their faces. It’s the Tortoise ascending the holy steps. He breaks through the golden gates, approaching the might thrown, eyes fixated on a scraggly beard. He grabs hold of those Elysian locks, reaches his fist into the jaw of the lord, and rips out his tongue. The Tortoise has Gods tongue in his hand. He is returning to the mortal world, boon in hand. Center stage. The whole thing is a play. The marionettes speak: “blasphemy!”- A yell dictated from the ties to the scaffolding above. The Tortoise grabs the curtain, tears it down. Stares, grinning, into the stoic face of the puppet master who feigns indifference. But now a formidable force emerges from the darkness of backstage. It’s the Grim Reaper. The marionettes fall to the floor; the clatter exposing the true colors of their subliminal operator as he flees. The Tortoise turns, staring into the face of death in utter curiosity. And now a smirk. Pure bliss! The Tortoise extends his hand met halfway by bare bones. They shake. Surprising warmth. Both figures remain. No sorrowful pile of ash forms, no, for there is no ego to burn here. And now, darkness.

Why are good vibes as rare as most native tribes 2x Why did we kill those guys instead of trying to share our lives? Why did we kill those guys? Do we like the tears in their eyes? Survive, connive and contrive. We contrive and connive to survive. Can we just take five? Yo that's what I ask of you; the next five minutes to let go here we go! Verse 1: Tri-Stan The Rappist feeling quite fantastic sitting in an attic doing nothing but practice. I am not the earth’s axis but it's all cool cus' I kind of fly above like a dove with a thing called love. And I don't even think of the fascists or the Westboro Baptists but they make others head's twirl and hurl. Do a bunch of heavy curls, impress the pretty girls, and after school give a tools head a swirl. I have no enemies but will we ever be free in a world with no enmity? No. Oh, I thought you would go, "I got the answers to all the earth's problems yo." I don't but so what? We all suffer somewhat. It just makes more sense to some to keep their mouth shut. "Why me?" is the mentality that lives far too seriously. The key is to take yourself lightly and you will float with the angels. It's amazing how different things can look at new angles. And if there are no stars in the sky tonight it's all right. The crickets will still chirp, those chicks will still twerk, those who can will usurp, the truth may still hurt; it's just how the world works. Just watch out below cus' we're letting go the point here is to simply go. Chorus: So let the melody flow and teach what it knows. No need for altissimo just play it like you mean it though, Like you mean it though... So let the melody flow and teach what it knows. No need for altissimo just play it like you mean it though. Live like you mean it though, you know? Verse 2: I know the routine: teens are mean, you want to fuck the homecoming queen then go party like Charlie Sheen, like an empty canteen. But the shit that you're seeing online excites your mind more than a Mexican jumping bean. But allow me to intervene. I'm only 17 but through the Facebook memes and the shiny touch screens I know no one’s ever gonna reach Nirvana but you can follow all your favorite drama naked pictures of Madonna play duck or Llama so I guess just do what you wanna. But don't ignore the inevitable, a not regrettable fate of a generation that can't communicate but can double all those squares together to get 2048. Cover the problems in duct tape you still can't escape. We're complex apes; nature bent slightly out of shape. But oh well why dwell? I don't believe in hell but the vibrations of its bells. Verse 3: My heart and thoughts are racing, feet pacing, my psyche’s chasing some most likely fake thing. Take six shits in one day, don't wanna make the world pay just gotta figure what to say to lighten up the day. Now if you listen to my flow you already know I don't care about where I'm gonna go. In ten years though I'll be wearing tattered clothes on the side of the road in two feet of snow playing music that nobody knows at free shows. But I got all ten toes and some good prose So life is jolly. I listen to my folly to pull me from the melancholy. My dog Rosie counteracts a grave trance, reminds me to dance. Life is a musical thing so everybody sing. And I must reiterate this one last thing: it's that thing about levity and if pursued effectively it'll dissolve dissonance like it did in my instance. Humiliation, vexation yield to exultation. Turn chagrin into something more Elysian. And while I float like an angel Lucifer's boat gets spangled with bullet holes; they drown, I fall to the ground. Clashing chord struck and that's when I look up. The twilight doesn't shine bright tonight so I say nighty night Facing nothing but plight, like when tired sleep I offer something to reap, throw away and another day rediscover and keep. It's the grand motion, contrasting emotion. Moving to and fro. All you can really do though is go. Chorus

VOR - "It is easy in the world to live after the worlds opinion; It is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" Quote Emerson. "I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind [him], will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations [around] them" Quote Thoreau. The Rappist: Inspire. Indulge in the tune it's Orpheus' lyre. Poke pins in my skin like the concert choir. You're selling dream catchers? I am not your buyer. When it comes to my psyche you will not rewire. But did you see the flyer? In front of Starbucks? Yeah I've just been hired. Now that's one way to extinguish desire while igniting a much more dangerous fire deep within me. It's hard to offend me. But if you do so then I throw a latte in the face of an 85 year old who then sprays me with mace. Now I gotta deal with a legal case because I joined the workplace; an ambiguous foot race that I'll never let change my pace. But it's true: the world is run by money and the play boy bunnies. My mom says, "honey, you're going into music but what does one do with a music degree?" Someone Just Give it to me like ABC, how to produce revenue steadily. But for me, being happy is to accept brevity and to forget longevity. Just live pleasantly presently. Eternally now is the me that I wanna be. So touch your heart to your ear. Feel no push in the rear by the peer of your peers. And no, I do not adhere; I step to the beat of the drum that I hear. VOR- so why don't you let these people know where you're coming from? The Rappist- well what exactly do you mean? VOR- well you know, you weren't always feeling so liberated. Remember back in freshman year? Like that was shit, remember? The Rappist- Yeah I remember that. VOR- like how did you get from there to here? The Rappist- All right so, I guess the question is... "To be, or not to be?" The later sometime appeals to me. But don't take me for an idealist. My mind is always in the gutter, soaked in piss. Self pity; I got sick of it when every night is like I don't want to be anymore. My hands are sore. Blood stains on the door. Provoke me to ask "what the fuck do I live for?" Nothing but means that have no end are the odds and ends at the school I attend. Lose track of friends. On no one else will I depend. Hit or miss I follow my bliss through a scope of genius. Life is reasonless so there better be happiness. Cherish loneliness. Yes, I'm an atheist hermit and I love it. Solitude is where I speak the verse of my soul and it never gets old. A clear mind amongst those lost in the times. The dirt chimes on which the sunlight shines Through the trees and vines creating these rhymes at the same time. I'm in my prime. I've got mental health and I need nothing else. Fuck tangible wealth. Metaphysically stealth. All that I need is me and myself. VOR- The point here isn't just to do things differently with some inflamed sense of ego. No. It's to realize that your own opinion is the one that has the most value to you. Now keeping in touch with that opinion is a great internal struggle in a seemingly external world. But I guarantee that if you accept this challenge, and stay true to it always, then, in time, it will prove to be the only way to live.

I still haven’t found Dan yet. We split up what seems to be like several hours ago and it’s getting dark now. For all I know we may never see each other again. But it’s all good; I know he is somewhere in this forest, hopefully walking his own path, just as I walk mine. And walking my own path- well that’s what I will continue to do; there is not much to it really I simply go wherever Rosie takes me. Although I suppose it does take a certain type of character to put all of your faith into a dog that is as foolish as mine. And who knows? Maybe one day Rosie will pull me down a path that leads back to civilization, but I’ve been trying not to think like that. I find it’s best to just walk with my head down, never looking back from where I have just come nor ever more than a few feet ahead of me. But occasionally I do stop and stand silently. The birds chirping, wind blowing, trees swaying, sun shining- and in all these things I see myself, not as good or bad but as what is. And I would say that the main thing I realized from going on this walk today is that we are very good at limiting ourselves. We all have a certain amount of potential within us and we can turn this potential unto something real if we act on our own accord. But the thing is that we live in a society that is overrun by institutions that aren’t really interested in helping you do this. I have found that we have to look out for ourselves because it’s likely that whatever school you attend, job you work, or social group by which you define yourself doesn’t really give a fuck about you. I’m not saying that to be harsh it’s just the truth. But I have found that the most liberating thing I have learned to utter is “fuck that”. You know? If it’s not for me then fuck it. Say it a couple of times yourself, it feels pretty good doesn’t it? You just gotta learn who you are as an individual and then learn what’s good for that person. And I have been called a weird guy and a freak from time to time but I don’t feel it at all because it’s not real. You have to understand that normal is nothing more than a human bias. No such thing as a weird person exists, only those who are pretentious enough to think that their way is the right way. Self reliance is the most amazing stand point from which I have experienced the world. And I feel like I have uncovered something valuable out here; and it’s not really esoteric, rather accessible, but unfortunately for most completely undiscovered. And that’s it. At the inception of a new one, this trail ends here. I have nothing left to tell you. Rosie is staring back at me with her eyebrows raised. She is wondering why we have stopped walking. So we move forward, growing ever closer to the things that I love as the distance between me and the things that I have found to be less important increases. And I dare you to do the same.