You Know You're On My Mind

Daily Horoscopes, 4.23.21

***if you enjoyed this offering, consider signing up for my weekly newsletter, which focuses on astrology, intimacy, deep attention. You can also follow me on instagram here. ***

Aries: Consider your “normal” relationship to money: do you tend to spend or save? Do you worry about it going away or trust that it will always be there? Regardless of which side you fall on, try to see things from the other perspective. What do you need to feel safe in the midst of shifting circumstances? Do you allow room for adaptation, and your sense of support changing? Let your resources come from unexpected places— other people perhaps, or the sound of the wind through the trees. Find safety while still being part of the flow of life. 

Taurus: Know you have the power of change right now. You can choose to ignore it, and let it bring chaos into your life, or you can find value in turning on a dime. So much of our worldly experience is letting in the universe’s constant change. Notice where obligations or commitments have outlived their usefulness, or their beauty. Freedom is not without its obstacles, both within and without. See how quickly they can clear if you let them. You have the power, even if it’s just acceptance, surrender, trust. 

Gemini: Go to the part of your mind that no one sees. Is it well adorned? Taken care of? Does it feel alive? Your job today is not one of control but of making room for all the shadowy, mysterious parts of you to come forward. Find the beauty in the liminal, the unruly, the parts of life that evade usefulness and material success. Find beauty in what cannot be monetized or contained. Trust that changes are occurring, even if you can only see chaos. It is behind the scenes. It thrives in mystery. 

Cancer: The shape of your communities is rearranging. What has not been examined in the group structure or what no longer serves its members is on its way out. Pay attention to what remains and to what insight your community members can give you. Your future is beginning to take shape and it will always surprise you, thank god. It may be unmooring, or feel like a loss as you let go of what you used to want. Find stable ground in what you can grasp right now. Go for what is beautiful. It will plant beautiful seeds. 

Leo: Take the words of Randall Jarrell to heart: “If I can think of it, it isn’t what I want”. You are coming up against your mental image of success and what it actually feels like. Know that being bound to a certain position or activity is not the same thing as commitment. See today as a clearing ground for all that no longer serves your mysterious future self and its role in the world. You are making room for new visions and dreams. Beginning with your current affinities and natural pleasures, root into the body to find out what you want to cultivate. Always make room for the unpredictable. It is the closest position to getting what you actually “want”. 

Virgo: One of the features of a wise person is a flexible mind. Today, you will be interrogating beliefs that are no longer true, or else are only true within a bigger context. You want ideas that not only encourage your flourishing and pleasure in life but those that allow you to think bigger, more innovative thoughts. Don’t let dogma become a prison, or a replacement for the eros of the mind. Not knowing is most intimate. How can you hold this fact alongside your search for understanding? Start with the body. 

Libra: Watch for unexpected collaboration or avenues of support. Watch for learned helplessness, versus relationships that make you feel stronger. We are always dealing with a sense of lack on some level; we don’t always get to decide what fills it. But you may be wanting to detach from connections that used to feel bearable. You cannot stand too much dependence right now and I encourage you to sit with the lack that takes the place of these unequal relationships. You can be in the flow of interdependence without losing your sovereignty. The first step is to attend to the inner much that no one else can clean but you. All your guilt, fear, sadness, confusion, has a place if only you attend it well. 

Scorpio: Those around you are like rainbows; beautiful, intoxicating, but fleeting in their presence. You may not be able to find the stability in your relationships that you are used to accessing. Those around you are changing the relationship rules and thus asking you to change in turn. Freedom and space are cornerstones to true knowing. If you think you can predict another person’s needs, or even control them, you are obviating any room for true relationship. How can space serve both of you? How can relationships make you more free? 

Sagittarius: Don’t be surprised if you can’t get all of your work done in the way you prefer. More importantly, you are being asked to question your basic ideas about productivity and routine. Though we all must give up some measure of freedom in our work life, consider small ways you can bring more innovation and improvisation into your routines and obligations. If not, tehn change will come one way or another. Align with what you value on a fundamental level to help you decide when to commit and when to let something go. Your life is always dependent on larger contingencies. How to always stay in touch with your never-ending process?

Capricorn: Trust the spark of creativity to give you something new today. Revisit an old project that has since stagnated or start a novel endeavor. Try a new technique or study a new artist to give you ideas. Notice what supposedly creative endeavors no longer bring you joy or innovation. Watch out for new romances or connections that may inspire as well, especially if they are somehow unlike your usual type. Spend time with children and notice how they decide how to spend their time. Take a page from their book and play. 

Aquarius: Spending time with family may be especially sweet today but only if you aren’t expecting the usual. Old dynamics or familial patterns may be on their way to being broken, especially if you choose freedom and candor over superficial comfort. Stability and safety cannot be found in what is no longer vital or alive. How can your home life be both a source of comfort and a dynamic, ever-changing entity. Trust the changes that come through the inside today. 

Pisces: You have the power to re-align your inner dialogue. You have the power to break habits on a fundamental, day-to-day level. Pay attention to the beautiful things you see throughout the day. How can you better invite these things closer? First you must make room for unpredictability, for all that is outside your control. But even in the midst of change, paying attention to what you control is key. Start small. Anchor yourself to the everyday. See what new seeds you can plant.

Taurus Moon: Going at their own pace

Gemini Moon: Going a million miles an hour

Cancer Moon: Forging attachments

Leo Moon: Shinning

Virgo Moon: Always listening

Libra Moon: Playing nice

Scorpio Moon: Hiding their cards

Sagittarius Moon: Always rolling the dice

Capricorn Moon: Making bank

Aquarius Moon: Living in the future

aries — release what doesn’t serve you. a new connection is coming.

taurus — it’s not a good time to take risks.

gemini — work through your fears. new beginnings and a new cycle.

cancer — confidence. if there’s something you want, go for it.

leo — someone is going to be opening up to you. you've been waiting for this.

virgo — things are going to start falling into place. you're regaining balance.

libra — emotional fulfillment. spend more time with your loved ones.

scorpio — luck is on your side. manifestations are coming into fruition.

sagittarius — your guides are leading the way. awakening and rebirth. old situations are ending.

capricorn — be consistent on what you create. you have everything it takes for what you desire, but consistency is needed.

aquarius — persevere and stay strong. you're almost there.

James Marcus Haney is a 27 year old photographer and film maker. In 2010, Marcus snuck in Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival by using a fake wristbands and using cameras as decodes. Marcus and his friend Adam even carpooled with a guy named Chris that they met off of a Craigslist advertisement.

Once Adam and Marcus reached the festival grounds, sometime around midnight, Marcus and Adam hopped a fence and slept underneath a trailer all morning. When the festival had started, Marcus and Adam realized that they were actually backstage at Coachella. Throughout Marcus’s time at Coachella, Marcus managed to get into photo pits and take photos up close of Marcus’s favorite musicians. Marcus and Adam managed to sneak into the festival all three days. From there Marcus was hooked on sneaking into music festivals.

After Coachella, Marcus made photo album on Facebook called “Jipchella: How Broke Kids Do Coachella.” One of his friends who was interning at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival asked if they could use Marcus’s photo of Jay-Z Marcus captured at Coachella for promotional purposes. Marcus agreed and because Bonnaroo did not have much money to pay him, Bonnaroo gave Marcus two passes to Bonnaroo instead. Marcus sold one of the passes to buy a flight to Tennessee. Instead of flying into Me, Tennessee, Marcus flew in Memphis, Tennessee by mistake. Marcus ended up hitch hiking to Bonnaroo.

When Marcus arrived to the Bonnaroo festival gates, Marcus realizes Bonnaroo only gave him a regular festival ticket and not a photo pass. Therefore Marcus could not bring in his cameras into the festival. Marcus then used his cameras as props and put on a bunch of fake wristbands as decode and entered through the exit. Marcus pretended to be on the phone and pretended to be running late to work. For the next four days, the same security guard let Marcus through the exit because Marcus made a relationship and made his face known.

At Bonnaroo, when Marcus was looking for a place to charge his phone, Marcus found a Canon tent which ended up being a photo gallery. Out of the corner, Marcus saw his Jay-Z photo from Coachella. The photo was blown up and framed in a giant frame with red velvet rope around the frame. The photo was even credited to Marcus. The very last day of the festival, two security guards cut off all of Marcus’s wristbands and drove four miles off site and dropped Marcus off the side of the highway and told Marcus to not go back.

Shortly after Bonnaroo, Marcus decided to go to Las Vegas and sneak into Ultra Music Festival. Using fake wristbands and sneaking into the festival, Marcus ended up getting on stage with Moby, Deadmau5, Martin Solveig, Skrillex, 12th Planet, David Guetta, and Tiesto. Marcus managed to sneak in all three days and hang out backstage with the artists. Marcus also captured many clips and photographs of the artists.

After Ultra Music Festival, Marcus realized that he had many of short clips and photos of all these artists and musicians from the music festivals Marcus had been sneaking in. Marcus decided to put together a short film for his friends to watch in the basement of his home so that his friends could see what they had missed. Marcus decided to call the film ’Connaroo: How Broke Kids Do Bonnaroo.”

When Mumford and Sons announced they were performing at the Palladium in Hollywood, Marcus did something he had never done. Marcus bought tickets to the show so he could take his girlfriend because that was the band Marcus and his girlfriend Kelly fell in love to. Marcus just happened to have a copy of “Connaroo: How Broke Kids Do Bonnaroo,” in his coat pocket when he went to the show. At the end of the gig, Marcus handed his short film to a roadie. The roadie watched it and passed it onto Mumford and Sons and Mumford and Son’s band manager. The following week, Marcus received an email from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Mumford and Sons’s tour manager telling Marcus to keep his April open. April was also Marcus’s last semester of school at University of South California where Marcus was studying film.

In April 2011, Coachella not only hired more authorities than ever to enforce festival grounds but Coachella also modified their wristbands to make sure people would not be able to sneak into the festival. This was the year that Coachella added RFID chips so that people would have to scan every time patrons entered and exited the festival. Marcus and friends gathered photos from people they knew were going to Coachella. Marcus and his friends complied the photos, fixed the photos in Photoshop, printed them onto Iron-On paper, and then ironed them onto cloth wristbands. For the RFID chips, Marcus and his friends took lighting gels and cut them into squares to make it look like the wristbands would have RFID chips.

The first day of the festival, Marcus and his friends charged a security guard and acted like they were late for shooting a band who was performing right that moment. The security guy caved and let them through, therefore Marcus and his friends didn’t have to “scan” through the main entrance since a security guard let them through a side entrance did not require scanning to enter and exit through festival grounds. Marcus and his friends even snuck in a helicopter with an HD camera so that they could capture more footage of the festival. That night, Marcus received an email from Mumford and Sons asking him to meet them outside of Coachella the next day. For the first time, Marcus drove into Coachella on a tour bus with Mumford and Sons. Marcus was then invited by Mumford and Sons to go on the Railroad Revival Tour with Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show.

The tour was at the same time as finals and Marcus’s professors were not willing to work with him. Marcus chose to go on tour with Mumford and Sons and failed two of his three classes. This was Marcus’s his last semester of school and because Marcus failed his last semester, Marcus was not able to graduate. Marcus’s family were somewhat disappointed because Marcus did not graduate, but when Marcus’s parents saw that Marcus’s photo from the Railroad Revival Tour was published in Rolling Stone, Marcus could see the pride in his dad’s eyes. Marcus’s published photo almost meant as much as a diploma would have that night.  

During the summer, HBO contacted Marcus to shoot the Running of the Bulls in Spain. Marcus had HBO change his itinerary so that Marcus could spend two months in Europe instead of spending one week in Spain for work. Marcus hitch hiked to Pilton, Somerset, England and managed to sneak into Glastonbury, even though it is the hardest music festival to sneak into. Marcus was capturing all this great footage of these well-known artists and musicians but Marcus was not doing a great job of keeping in contact with his friends and family.

When Marcus was shooting the Running of the Bulls, Marcus attempted to photograph at angle that no photographer had ever dared to shoot. Marcus succeeded at capturing the perfect photo but the bull rammed into him after he capture the shot. Marcus was rushed to the emergency room and had internal bruising. At that moment, Marcus realized that he was taking his friends and family for granted and that his priorities were off. Marcus was not really keeping in touch with his friends and family while Marcus was away because Marcus was very work focused.

On Marcus’s flight home, Marcus wrote an email for his friends pitching an idea to road trip in two R.V.’s from Los Angeles to Austin. This was Marcus’s way to apologize to his friends for taking them for granted. During their road trip, one of the R.V.’s broke down, so Marcus and his 12 friends squeezed into one R.V. to make it to Austin. Marcus and his friends all managed to sneak into Austin City Limits Music Festival.

In Austin, Marcus met Young the Giant and told them how he had snuck into multiple music festivals, road tripped to Austin in an R.V., and managed to sneak in Austin City Limits. A few weeks later, Young the Giant contacted Marcus to direct their music video for their song “Apartment.” The video is almost a reflection of Marcus’s road trip to Austin from Los Angeles. Since then, Marcus has been working as a photographer for musicians in the music industry. Marcus shot the Mumford and Sons album cover for their album “Babel.” Marcus is Mumford and Sons official photographer and has even directed a few music videos for other bands as well. Marcus has even been featured on Connan O’Brien, MTV, film, and music festivals around the United States.

The reason that this documentary sparked up so much controversy is because a lot of people were questioning the morality of the film and the credibility. People were shifty eyed because it was an MTV film. Therefore people were wondering if the film was fake and staged. But for the first time, MTV did not touch or even edit the film.

In an interview with Marcus Haney last summer, Marcus clarified some of the questions I had about the film. Marcus stated that the film was not made by MTV but MTV was solely a distribution partner. MTV had nothing to do with the creation of the documentary but MTV helped him clear the music he could use in the film so he could it legally use it in the film. Every single piece of footage in the film is shot by Marcus or his close friends. 90% of the footage came directly from Marcus’s camera while the rest of it was passed on by Marcus’s friends.

At the beginning of the film, Marcus even says, “In a way, I am a thief. I am stealing from the festival because in order for all this to happen, people have to pay for it to happen. Every time I sneak in, there’s that moral dilemma of me withholding something that’s ultimately going to this thing that is being existence.”

Although there are some unethical aspects about what Marcus was doing, I find this film very inspiring. In the film, Marcus’s parents even say that they always knew that Marcus was the type that was not meant to be put in the box. In an interview with MTVU, Marcus said, “I’ve realized that things that seem out of reach, aren’t that far out of reach, if you work really hard, and you look outside of the normal ways you’re supposed to be doing things.”

The first time I saw No Cameras Allowed was back in March 2014. It was finals week, I was super stressed out with school, and I was just thinking about spring break.  I was kind questioning what I was doing with my life and if I was even in the right major. Watching “No Cameras Allowed” really inspired me and helped me find my calling in life. After watching the film, I realized that I was more passionate about wanting to study Public Relations at Central Washington University. I was trying to study education as well. At one point, I was a double major in early childhood education and public relations. Just last quarter, I switched my education major to a minor because I am more passionate about studying public relations. Public Relations is my calling and comes more naturally to me. “No Cameras Allowed” also inspired my friend who is a music major. 

This film helped me realize that I can make a hobby into a career. The way that Marcus was doing things outside of the box, reminds me of myself. I feel that with the things I am doing toward building connections for my career makes me different than most of my peers. When I go to a concert, I treat it as a job. I network with different people in the industry because I not only want to make a connection, but also because I genuinely want to get to know them as a person. For the last four years, instead of partying, I have been choosing to travel and go to concerts so I can make dreams reality.  

Once you get past the ethics of this film, this film is really about how you can get something out of doing something differently if you work really hard, if you are passionate about what you do, and even though it may seem unrealistic to people. I believe this film is about thinking outside of the box even though society does not agree with thinking outside of the box all the time. And in the end, recognizing doing things differently than the rest of our peers because eventually we will meet people who are like us along the way and when we reach the finish line.

Bibliography

(2015, March 09). Retrieved February 25, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoKcrwhsQX8

Donnelly, M. S. (2014, August 28). Marcus Haney Calls ‘No Cameras Allowed’ A Field Guide To Playing By Your Own Rules. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://www.mtv.com/news/1915019/no-cameras-allowed-marcus-haney-interview/

Fanny Wynn Published: August 2nd, 2014. (2014, August 02). Marcus Haney’s Festival Documentary “No Cameras Allowed” Sparks Controversy [Official Trailer Air Date] | Zumic - Free Music. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://zumic.com/2014/08/02/marcus-haneys-festival-documentary-cameras-allowed-sparks-controversy-official-trailer-air-date/

H. (2014, August 27). Retrieved February 22, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZxjtuyuoLE

Haney, J. M. (Director). (2014, July 23). No Cameras Allowed [Video file]. Retrieved February 14, 2017.

N. (2015, April 16). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pac2xZpPCpg

No Cameras Allowed: Fake or Genius? (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://www.howtobecomearockstarphotographer.com/no-cameras-allowed-fake-or-real/

No Cameras Allowed: Is it Real or Fake? (2014, July 25). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://petapixel.com/2014/07/25/no-cameras-allowed-real-fake/

T. (2014, August 20). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpzzjlsiUwg

T. (2014, September 03). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZko9qA10RI

V. (2016, January 18). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hehyQMlKqZ0

Webster, A. (2014, August 07). ‘No Cameras Allowed,’ a Documentary by James Marcus Haney. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/movies/no-cameras-allowed-a-documentary-by-james-marcus-haney.html?_r=0

Y. (2012, April 24). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ALvP41HKs0

Breaking the Triangle

Marcus Haney sneaks into the Bacardi Triangle festival and films his experience

You’ve probably seen this picture that Ellie posted on Instagram recently, that is ‘from Glastonbury 2015′:

Well it turns out that the image (which is actually a year old) is of Ryan Chen, a good friend of film-maker Marcus Haney, a man famous for sneaking into music festivals and filming how he does it.

Last October, Ellie jokingly challenged Marcus to break into the Bacardi Triangle festival:

And he did! Ryan Chen (the guy in the wheelchair) was part of the team who helped Marcus to sneak in, and to film how he did it. The movie is called ‘Breaking the Triangle’, and you can watch the trailer here: